Regressing into the past?

The government's refusal to extend the visa of Lindsay Murdoch, a senior correspondent for the Australian newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald comes like a bolt of lightning amid a clear blue sky -- all the more so, since Jakarta has stubbornly refused to justify its action.

Asked for the reason for the action, Wahid Supriyadi, the foreign ministry's deputy spokesman, merely told reporters that the foreign ministry "has its own considerations for not extending his visa". Moreover, according to Wahid, "it is common policy for any country to decline a visa application without having to provide an explanation."

That may be so. However, whatever the reason or reasons may be, the government's refusal of a visa extension for the Australian journalist is sending scary signals to the media world in Indonesia, and in all probability abroad as well. Nor does Jakarta's refusal to explain the incident help to assuage the growing anxiety.

To add to the befuddlement, Murdoch's visa expired on Dec. 10 last year, but was extended for three months. Murdoch left Jakarta last Sunday, March 10, more than a week before the news finally became publicly known. His only comment on the matter was that "as a guest of the country I have been shown the door and I will leave politely.

Murdoch, however, said he could not understand the decision because none of the reports he had been dispatching from Jakarta was in his opinion unbalanced, unfair or inaccurate. A joint statement received in Jakarta on Sunday from the two Australian newspapers, however, said that it had become clear in discussions with Indonesian officials that the action was taken because of Murdoch's "authoritative reporting".

Of course it would be more than regrettable if this latest little disagreement should have a disturbing effect on Indonesian-Australian relations. Not since the huge fracas over a report about then president Soeharto's family -- an in-depth report on Soeharto's alleged riches by David Jenkins that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald in April 1986 -- has the press been made the scapegoat for marring relations between Indonesia and Australia. Our fear is that unless this latest case is handled with wisdom and restraint on both sides of the argument, we could well see history repeating itself.

As far as the Indonesian media is concerned, it is no secret that, of late, the government has been showing an unmistakable uneasiness over what it apparently conceives as an overindulgence on the part of the Indonesian media, both printed and electronic, in its exercise of the principles of freedom of the press and the free flow of information.

All we can do for the present is hope that Indonesia, and Indonesian officialdom in particular, have learned the lessons of the past. After all, nowhere in history has there been an incident in which a government has fallen or country brought to ruin, simply because of a report in the press. The best way, or indeed the only way, to effectively counter any false, untrue or unfair reporting in the press is to make a sober rejoinder. Any effort to hamper the press in fulfilling its duty of informing the public will only bear an adverse effect.