Roy Suryo, pioneer in multimedia documentation

Roy Suryo, pioneer in multimedia documentation

By Ridlo Aryanto

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Is there any evidence possessing greater
authenticity than a suspect's confession, a witness's testimony
or an exhibit in a criminal case?

The Criminal Code says "no", but if the same question is asked
of RM Roy Suryo, he will strongly reply "yes".

For Roy, 32, a multimedia observer who also teaches at the
School of Media Recordings at the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI)
in Yogyakarta, an audio-visual record is valid evidence.

"Actually, the audio-visual technology is highly reliable as
evidence but our legal system seems to find it difficult to
recognize as a legitimate exhibit," said Mas Roy, as he is
affectionately called.

In Roy's opinion, visual recordings will provide more
certainty than evidence accepted by Indonesia's Criminal Code. To
illustrate his point, Roy referred to the trial of a case in
which a Trisakti University student rammed his VW car into a
cordon of security officers during the 1998 general session of
the Peoples' Consultative Assembly.

To obtain a clearer understanding of the incident, the judge
could have referred to video recordings made by TV cameramen.

"It is true that, though remote, there is always a possibility
that the recording has been tampered with. However, I am
convinced that there is always truth behind technological
sophistication. What I'm sure of is that a video recording is of
greater authenticity than the testimony of the witnesses, who
were fellow security officers, as this kind of testimony can
always be fabricated," said Roy, who also teaches in the diploma
program at the School of Social and Political Sciences of Gadjah
Mada University.

Equipped with an awareness of the significance of historical
moments recorded in televised news reports, Roy was prompted to
renew his hobby of making video cassette recordings of televised
news reports.

To most people this type of hobby may sound like the activity
of someone who has very little to do.

It all began with a telephone conversation from Wicaksono,
Roy's senior at the communications department of the School of
Social and Political Sciences at Gadjah Mada University.
Wicaksono, a science and technology editor for a Jakarta-based
news weekly, called him at midnight on May 12, 1998 when Jakarta
began to seethe with tension.

"A student has been killed today. Are you not interested in
documenting this event?" Roy quoted Wicaksono as asking.

Roy took up the challenge. He connected a 34-inch TV with four
video recorders.
As a result documentation of historical moments of the reform era
began. The four video recorders, which switched on automatically,
would selectively record all television news reports in their
entirety.

700 master recordings

The reports came from state television station TVRI, five
privately-owned television channels and also foreign television
stations including CNN and CNBC.

"Every morning, after dawn or at weekends, I edited the
recordings. Important news reports are put together
chronologically as one story on one Betamax video cassette master
recording."

Today, Roy's collection of news reports during the height of
the reform movement totals around 700 master recordings. They
include reports on, for example, Soeharto's resignation (in five
versions with different news angles), the May 14 riots in Jakarta
and Solo, the sensational telephone conversation between then-
attorney general Andi Ghalib and then-president Habibie, the
alleged affair between Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and Aryanti,
as well as recent reports on the discovery of Tommy Soeharto's
bunker.

Apart from relying on his own recordings, Roy also receives
recordings about many events, exclusive or otherwise, from
friends, students activists and other sources. It is often the
case that owners of the recordings are scared of keeping the
video cassettes themselves for safety reasons.

"Anybody may make use of the recordings in my collection. It's
free of charge," Roy said.

Recording a television program was not an entirely new hobby
to Roy. As a university student he was very fond of watching all
sorts of television programs, collated with the help of his
trusty video recorder. As he had a lot of video recordings of
television programs -- ranging from World Cup soccer to music
video clips -- Roy was like a data bank to his friends.

"I just had a simple idea: what I do now will surely be useful
some day. Now the collection is often the source of material for
my lectures," said Roy, who also teaches photography at Gadjah
Mada University.

Owing to his deep interest in multimedia, Roy, who is a member
of the Puro Pakualaman aristocratic family of Yogya, has had to
"deal with" the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency (BIA, now Bais,
the Indonesian Military Strategic Intelligence Agency).

It all began with his attempt to use his computer to verify
the telephone conversation between Habibie and Andi Ghalib, which
had caused quite a stir in the community. Today, he said, there
is software which can be used to combine, edit and present a
voice, complete with its amplitude, frequency and spectrum.

It was using this software that he tested three versions of
Habibie and Ghalib's voice recordings obtained from friends and
the Internet.

"One of the versions that I have is even more complete than
the version BIA had. My version begins with Habibie lifting the
receiver and ends with Habibie hanging up the telephone," he
said.

For comparison Roy used the voice of Habibie and Ghalib in
other events, and the recording of monologue actor Butet
Kartarejasa's voice while impersonating Habibie.

Once everything had been fed into the computer program the
process of analysis began. The result? It could be clearly seen
that there was a difference in spectrum between Habibie's
original voice and Butet's impersonation.

Furthermore, the spectrum of Habibie's original voice in
another event turned out to be exactly the same as the spectrum
of the voice speaking on the telephone.

"My conclusion is that the voice on the telephone was indeed
Pak Habibie's. Roy intentionally did not test Ghalib's voice. "I
have my hypothesis that if two persons talk on the phone there
are only two possibilities: the two persons are the actual
persons or both are frauds."

It was this finding that resulted in Roy having to do deal
with BIA. He went to the intelligence headquarters on March 17,
1999 to explain his project.

He joked that at that time he shuddered at the thought of
being kidnapped like (political activist) Pius Lustrilanang. His
discussion with BIA members, however, took place smoothly and
without any violence.

"What made me proud was that they agreed with my conclusion:
the telephone conversation recorded involved the original voices
of Habibie and Ghalib. I was even proud at being able to have a
free lunch at the headquarters of BIA," Roy said, bursting into a
hearty laugh.

Roy, who has been married to Ismarindayani for six years, is
self-taught in the use of computer and other multimedia
equipment.

He also devises programs, makes viruses and even dismantles
and then reassembles his computers. Once he tried to seriously
learn MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) but then, as he
felt he had no knack for music, he shifted to utility, which has
inevitably required him to keep up with the latest technological
developments.

"The consequence is that I must buy a new laptop computer
every six months. Only lately did I realize that it was these
laptops that made me a spendthrift," said Roy, adding that he
preferred to buy a new laptop rather than the spare parts to
upgrade his old one.

It was only three months ago that Roy realized he had 16
laptops and notebooks. As he could no longer accommodate them
all, he sold some to his friends last month.

When asked how much he spends to satiate his hunger for
multimedia, he said, "I have never counted how much. Everything
is very expensive now. One good notebook computer costs between
10 and 20 million rupiah. But I've never felt I have sustained
any losses. One thing is certain, I still nurture an obsession to
establish a center for historical documentation in a multimedia
format," he said.