Susilo needs the press more than his predecessors

Ardimas Sasdi, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's pledge on National Press Day in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Feb. 9 not to curb press freedom deserves praise. The promise, if honored, will endear him to a press that he needs to drum up highly necessary public support at this juncture of his rule.

But time will tell whether his statement was the sincere gesture of a statesman or just the political gimmick of a cunning leader.

I wrote a piece in The Jakarta Post two weeks ago urging the press to put its house in order. The call was an expression of my concern about the fragility of the press in the face of such issues as mob attacks on journalists and media offices, expensive lawsuits and other troubling trends in the legal and political spheres. If the media fails to heed these problems, they could curtail press freedom and the young democracy it promotes.

The fresh threats include the drafting of draconian bills targeting the press, plans by the House of Representatives to speed up the deliberation of the bills and a move by the government to upgrade the status of the Office of the State Minister for Communications and Information, a move being monitored by the press with apprehension.

The question among journalists is whether these steps will continue, and will they usher in an era of a controlled press similar to the New Order era, when the information ministry acted as a regulator of the media.

The draft laws now being deliberated by the House consist of a bill on pornography and a new criminal code. The pornography bill regulates material that can be aired or printed by the media, but the quandary is that pornography for some is art to others. The new criminal code, which contains 40 clauses on the press, would criminalize libel and stipulates harsher punishments for press infractions.

In contrast to the attention given by the executive and legislative branches to the two draft laws, as seen in their speedy deliberation, a bill on the Information Act, which would give people and the media more access to public information, has been lying dormant in the legislature for a long time.

Public apprehension about the future of a free press, which evolved after the fall of strongman Soeharto in 1998, was compounded by an emotional outburst by President Susilo, a leader portrayed as responsive, courteous and calm, and his ministers over reports critical of the government.

Susilo became furious earlier this month about a poll that indicated his popularity was declining. There is great potential for Susilo's numbers to tumble if he fails to live up to the high expectations the people have placed on him to fix the problems besetting the country, though it would be unfair to put all of the blame on him.

These turns of event have added fuel to speculation among the already suspicious press that the current government is just another regime that will not tolerate dissenting opinions and will use its power to muzzle the media if pushed against the wall.

The relationship between the government and the media in the last 40 years from Soeharto to Megawati Soekarnoputri, except during the transitional government of B.J. Habibie, who liberalized the media industry in 1998, has been mostly gloomy, with the government exploiting the media through various devices.

Soeharto built cozy ties with the press in the first seven years of his 32-year rule, but banned 10 publications after the Malari riots in 1974. Soeharto continued to impose tight controls over the press until his fall in 1998. Megawati, known as a media-shy leader, received an outpouring of support from the press during the initial stage of her presidency, but that support plunged when she turned her back on the press.

It is too early to predict whether history will repeat itself, but both Susilo and his predecessors initially received sympathy and support from the press. The difference is that as a president directly elected by the people, Susilo needs the press more than his predecessors, who were elected by the members of the People's Consultative Assembly.

The future of Susilo's government largely depends on the media, which shapes public opinion about his government through editorials, commentaries, news reports and polls -- a tool commonly used in democracies to gauge the popularity of a leader or government. So it is puzzling to hear Susilo say, "I don't care about my popularity."

Interestingly, Susilo's outburst took place not long after a visit by State Minister for Communications and Information Sofyan Djalil to two Jakarta-based media that had run reports critical of the government. The visits were followed by an "invitation" to media executives to meet with Susilo at the Presidential Palace.

Both steps, especially the meeting, are problematic in view of their appropriateness, as they could be interpreted by the media community as a form of pressure or intimidation. This conclusion is not an exaggeration, as these visits and meeting had all the hallmarks of briefings and meetings held by the defunct information ministry and the military during the New Order regime, where government officials gave media executives lists of what they could and could not do.

So rather than harassing the media with "visits" and "invitations", the government must learn how to deal with the press. The current government needs the media more than previous governments as a tool to improve its image among the people, who now have a direct say in who leads the country.

The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.