'Sinar Harapan' hits stands after 15 years

JAKARTA (JP): Afternoon paper Sinar Harapan (Light of Hope) made its comeback to city newsstands on Monday after being shut down for about 15 years since October 1986.

Chief editor Aristides Katoppo stated the publishing company, PT Sinar Harapan Persada, distributed 100,000 copies of the newspaper to newsstands in the city, and they sold well.

Aristides said that for the time being, copies of the newspaper would be made available only in Greater Jakarta.

He contended that the high delivery costs had prevented the company from distributing copies of the newspaper to areas outside Greater Jakarta.

"Hopefully within one year we can break even," he told The Jakarta Post by phone on Monday afternoon.

At least 60 journalists and staffers, along with a number of contributors, work on the daily's general news plus the Sunday weekender edition.

The Soeharto administration shut down the paper in October 1986 after 25 years of operation due to its sharp criticism of the government.

Sinar Harapan was then replaced by government-sanctioned Suara Pembaruan afternoon paper, still using the former paper's office and staff.

However, Aristides claimed, Suara's management refused to revive Sinar, letting the latter go its own way.

"The decision to publish Sinar is based on numerous requests by people for a comeback of the paper in this era of freedom of the press. Sinar aims to recover its name, ideas and vision.

"Sinar's vision is to uphold freedom, truth, justice and peace based on love. The vision is still relevant today when all we need is peace. This paper will take part in the struggle to achieve reconciliation in the country," Aristides, who is one of the paper's founding fathers, remarked.(bby)