Press told to address potential social unrest

JAKARTA (JP): Instead of waiting for violent outbreaks, potential conflict simmering beneath the nation's ethnic and cultural foundations should be addressed by the media, senior journalists and a sociologist agreed on Tuesday.

They agreed that over the past three decades, the media had swept all potential problems under the carpet, never opening public spheres for discourse over the issues.

At a discussion held by the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI), a common view was also shared among panelists that the media were in part to blame -- along with a corrupt government -- for the spate of unrest in past years.

Speakers were sociologist Tamrin Amal Tamagola of the University of Indonesia, assistant to the deputy editor of Muslim-oriented Ummat magazine Hamid Basyaib, Hidup's editor Sihol Siagian and chief editor of The Jakarta Post Susanto Pudjomartono.

The topic was on the mass media and their coverage of societal conflict, or conflict stemming from differences of ethnicity, religion, race and societal groups (SARA).

"We have fallen short of putting all the issues into perspective, that we are ethnically plural -- a vast potential for conflict," Susanto asserted.

"Intentionally or not, we tend not to cover such potential conflict... when ABRI says (a conflict) is over, we tend to follow," he added, referring to the Armed Forces.

Many demographic changes have been left uncovered all these years, he conceded.

One consequence of the lack of public discourse was the scale of recent conflicts and people's reactions, such as calls for a holy war following reports of unrest in Maluku province.

Speakers also referred to riots that occurred in West Kalimantan, Jakarta, East Nusa Tenggara and unrest across Java in previous years.

Hamid of Ummat admitted that while it was hard for journalists of his magazine to be emotionally detached from the conflicts in Ambon, they managed to cover both sides.

Sihol of the Catholic-oriented Hidup magazine also acknowledged similar circumstances. "But we are of the view that the unrest was political...," he said.

Tamagola reminded the media not to give in to the "ongoing battle" within themselves to write reports based on a certain editorial framing grounded on baseless prejudices. (aan)