The danger of incomplete information

Every time a disturbance occurs, especially when casualties occur, observers and politicians are ready with their analyses. The blame is always put on one of two factors -- one is the inability of people to properly convey their aspirations, the other is the existing social and economic gap.

But every time a new problem arises or a new disturbance occurs, the earlier problems are forgotten. Their instigators are never identified and the root of the problem is never revealed. Old cases are buried under new ones and people have to listen to the same, old, standard statements. The public never gets a satisfactory explanation of what happened earlier and cases are thus allowed to pile up.

If, for security reasons, the background of such cases cannot be made public, "off-the-record" explanations could be given and their judgmatic presentation to the public could be left to the discretion of the press. But if all information is "modified", then the public would only get a fraction of the complete information. People would then have to refer to the foreign media.

Unless we realize the negative effects of such a situation as soon as possible, a crisis of confidence might arise. Given our growth as a nation, this would be a dangerous situation to contend with.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta