|
“Trust in the state is thinning.” The country’s leading daily, Kompas, blared this
headline in its April 2 issue. The frontpage story listed five incidents
in 2013 alone that indicated that the law of the jungle prevails in
Indonesia.
The incidents, which were widespread were: places of worship were burned
in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) on Jan. 22; soldiers ransacked and set fire
to a police station in South Sumatra on March 7, Army’s Special Forces
(Kopassus) commandos allegedly shot dead four detainees in prison in
Yogyakarta on March 27; a mob killed a local police chief in North
Sumatra on March 29; and rioters razed six public offices in Central
Sulawesi on March 31.
Surveys have shown that public trust in the government is low. The
Indonesia Network Election Survey (INES), for example, recently reported
that 72.3 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with how law
enforcers have been fighting corruption and crime in general.
Meanwhile the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) said that 56 percent of
respondents questioned were also dissatisfied with law enforcement in the
nation.
People do not trust the government, according to the 2013 annual global
survey conducted by the Edelman Trust Barometer released in February.
Respondents said that they had less trust in “the government” than the
private sector, the media and NGOs.
More than 1,000 Indonesians were interviewed for the survey, 77 percent
of whom said that they trusted the media, versus 74 percent for business,
51 percent for NGOs and 47 percent government.
This lack of trust stems from public perceptions of pervasive official
corruption and fraud, wrong incentives that drive national and local
policies, transparency issues, a lack of oversight and poor performance.
The government will have to work hard in these five areas to boost public
confidence.
To their credit, some state bodies, particularly the Army, have taken
steps to boost transparency, as evinced by the Military Police
investigation of the Cebongan prison raid and massacre that led to the
arrest of 11 Kopassus commandos.
On the media, the 77 percent of Indonesian respondents who said that they
supported the fourth estate dropped from the 80 percent in 2012.
The report defined as media traditional newspaper and broadcast outlets,
online search engines, social media and owned media.
Respondents were asked to rate the media on a scale of 1 to 9, with the
former representing no trust at all and the latter representing a great
deal of trust.
While Indonesian public trust in the media declined, the percentage of
local respondents supporting the media was greater than the overall
global average of 57 percent.
However, more pronounced drops in the Indonesian public’s trust of media
can occur. One such threat comes from the declining idealism of
Indonesian journalists.
The revamping of the Press Law in 1999 after the end of the New Order
gave Indonesia a press free from government regulation that could nurture
the values of idealism, professionalism and independence.
Idealism is essential to ensure that the public’s right to know does not
suffer from by what one government minister described as the tug of war
between owners and the newsroom.
“Is the firewall so thin? Will it
vanish?” Tifatul Sembiring, Communications and Information Minister
said.
Tifatul, a stalwart of the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS),
made his comments at a hail-and-farewell dinner for departing members of
the independent Press Council on April 3.
He said that the Press Council had the “uneasy task of safeguarding the press” as the fourth pillar
of democracy in light of this tug of war between idealism and capital.
At the same dinner, Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, the first chair of the
post-Soeharto Press Council (2000-2003), said that media would perish if
their owners attempted to manipulate them.
During the Soeharto era, the government funded newspapers that followed
its line by purchasing their print runs wholesale. When Soeharto resigned
in May 1998, the government stopped buying and newspapers collapsed. A
press that is independent will survive and thrive, Atmakusumah said.
The prevailing concern is possible owner intervention in the 2014
legislative and presidential elections, given that a number of media
magnates have political ambitions. For the media to remain highly trusted
by the public, media owners beware: Stay out of the newsroom. ●
|
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar