Western journalists

Western journalists

I have noticed in a couple of recent letters that Farid
Baskoro does not approve of western journalists. In fact, the
poor western journalist cannot win. If he writes that "the
Indonesian government is guilty of human rights abuses", Mr.
Baskoro will berate him for being biased against Indonesia. But
if he writes that "Indonesia could be producing supersonic
aircraft within twenty years", Mr. Baskoro will call him a
sarcastic racist with a superiority complex!

In his first letter, Mr. Baskoro leveled just this charge at a
reporter who asked B.J. Habibie whether he had any plans for a
supersonic or hypersonic flight program. Now, this was a
perfectly reasonable question. Habibie is a relatively young man
of great influence, drive and vision, with a known interest in
supersonic and hypersonic aviation.

Granted, the question has ulterior significance. If he does
indeed aspire to launch a program to produce supersonic aircraft,
this could have great impact on Indonesia's industrial policy, on
the international aviation industry, and, in military terms, on
Indonesia's capacity to produce its own frontline combat
aircraft.

So, the reporter in question was acting professionally, asking
a pertinent question likely to elicit a newsworthy quote or
information. Why then, does Mr. Baskoro suggest that the reporter
had a superiority complex? And even if he did have a feeling of
superiority, why would he want to waste his time at an important
press conference trying to show it off? And even if he did want
to show it off, why would he choose to do so by asking what every
other person in the room, except Mr. Baskoro, would take to be a
perfectly sensible and normal question?

In his second letter, Mr. Baskoro implies that many western
journalists are anti-Indonesian, or anti-Asian, and mentions
three culprits, who include John Pilger. I have read several
articles by John Pilger, including one in which he accused the
Indonesian army of human rights abuses in East Timor.

I have also read others, accusing the Myanmar government of
exploiting forced labor, accusing several European governments of
lying about their selling of weapons to Iraq and accusing the
American government of assisting the Khmer Rouge.

I have even read an article in which he accused Hollywood
filmmakers of failing to portray atrocities committed by American
soldiers in Vietnam and of failing to show the heroism of the
Vietnamese people during their war against the U.S.

In short, John Pilger has many accusations to make about evils
to be found in many things, such as torture, forced labor,
government hypocrisy, aid for terrorists and the failure of many
Americans to face the truth about their occupation of Vietnam.
But it would be a gross distortion to conclude that he was anti-
Indonesian. After all, if he were anti-Indonesian, why would he
be so concerned about the sufferings of Indonesian citizens?

JOHN HARGREAVES

Jakarta