Lecture material for Postgraduate in Asia Pacific Journalism Studies at AUT University, New Zealand - Aug 2014

1. Indonesian Politics and the Media
Sony Ambudi
tren2000@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sony-ambudi/2a/5/a81
Asia-Pacific Journalism Course
Auckland University of Technology
August 2014

6. What do you know about
Indonesia?

7. Rich and poor live side by side

9. Relationship with NZ, Australia and PNG
(and Pacific countries)
 NZ: Indonesia was the 7th largest export
market until June 2008
 Australia: Sour after East Timor
independence 1999 but then back to
“love/hate relationship” as before
 PNG: Border conflict up until today
 Pacific countries: Indonesia tries to get
closer after the West Papua issue rises
widely

10. Diversity:
ethnic groups & languages
 There are more than 300 ethnic groups
including Arab-Indonesian, Indian-
Indonesian, Chinese-Indonesian, Eurasian-
Indonesian.
 Javanese is the largest (41%)
 There are more than 580 ethnic languages
& dialects

14. Geography: 17,000 Islands
 Extending 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles)
East to West - longer than USA
 6,000 islands are inhabited
 Inhabited regions are separated by seas
and clustered on islands
 NZ is the size of one province. There are 33
provinces in Indonesia
 Transport - mainly by ships and airplanes
 TV broadcasting reaches all corners via
Palapa satellites

16. History: Dutch & Japanese
colonial, Military dictatorship
 Dutch imperialised most of the country
except Aceh from 16th century to 1942
 Japanese: 1942 – 1945
 Gained independence on 17 August 1945
 First President: Soekarno (1945 – 1965)
 Military dictatorship lead by Soeharto (1966
– 1998)

17. Political history (Soekarno)
 1955 - first general election. Won by Soekarno
 Communism became very strong in the largest
Muslim country in the world
 Communist Party supported by China
 1965 - bloody coup d’etat by CP and Soeharto
(which got him his rise to power)
 More than one million people killed, accused as
CP members

19. Beliefs and religions history
 Six recognised religions: Islam (87%), Protestant
(5%), Roman Catholic (3%),
Hindu (2%), Buddhism (1%), Confucius (1998)
 Hindu - since BC
 Buddhism - in early AD
 Protestant & Catholic during Dutch era
 Islam - in 14th century
 While Soeharto was in power the “Indonesian
original belief” was acknowledged

20. History of media
(Dutch colonial era)
 1816 - first newspaper, Bataviasche
Courant, published by the Dutch
 1907 - first newspaper in Indonesian,
Medan Prijaji (royalty/blue blood)
 1910 - Chinese newspaper, Sin Po

21. History of media
(Japanese colonial era)
 All Dutch and most Indonesian media were
banned
 Military government published several
newspapers
 Underground press flourished e.g. Merah
Putih (The Red & White)

22. History of media (1945-1965)
 Nationalists published several newspapers
& magazines
 I949 - Indonesia Raya (Great Indonesia)
created by Mochtar Lubis, who was jailed
by both Soekarno and Soeharto. It was
closed down in 1974 by Soeharto
 1949 - Jawa Pos which became the biggest
news publisher in the country
 1955 - Indonesian Observer, the oldest
English-language newspaper

23. History of media (1965-1998)
 1965 – Kompas, published by the Catholic group
and became one of the conglomerates in the
media business.
 1970 - Pos Kota, a yellow newspaper published by
Soeharto most trusted Ministry of Information.
 1991 - Republika, created by Muslim intellectuals
lead by Habibie, the 3rd president.
 All was controlled very tightly by government

24. History of media (1998-now)
 Over 700 newspaper publishers (2007)
- Four times compared to the Soeharto era
 Two journalist associations: PWI
(Indonesian Journalist Association) & The
Alliance of Independent Journalists
 PWI always had and still has strong links
with the government
 Members of the Soeharto family remain the
major stake-holders of mainstream media

26. Media after 1998…
 More focused economy than ideology
 During 27 years of Soeharto era only one
TV station: TVRI, Indonesian State TV
 In 1989: Three more private TV stations
owned by Soeharto family
 After 2002: there are 11 National stations,
80 Local stations and 10 Pay stations

27. Case study :
Tanjung Priok Incident (1984)
 North Jakarta, only 10 KM away from
presidential palace
 People rallied to demand the release of 4
Mosque caretakers from police prison
 Crushed by army with M16 machine gun
 More than 400 casualties
 But official counting through media was
only 18 deaths. No headlines or big news in
any newspapers

28. Tanjung Priok investigation
(after 20 years)

29. Evidence found!

30. Army Commander In Chief responsible
was appointed as vice president

31. Politics overpowers Journalism
27th July 1996 Tragedy
5 people died
More than 200 injured

36. PDIP Party’s President became Indonesia’s first female
president and she refused to conduct the investigation on the
incident

37. Army Commander In Chief responsible was
elected as current president

38. Bali bombing
 2002: All details in every newspaper and
aired many times by TV
 Court open to everybody
 The defendants interviewed so many times
by media

40. Trend Beyond 2014
?

42. Media landscape currently
 Mostly economic-oriented
 TV Broadcasting: 1 Government funded,
11 National private stations, 80 Local
stations and 10 Pay stations
 Radio: more than 1,200 stations
 Newspaper: more than 200
 Magazine & Tabloid: more than 500
 Internet: 45 million
 Mobile phone: more than 220 million

48. Act of Free Choice in July to August 1969

49. 1965: three million members of Indonesia’s Communist Party
in the most populous muslim country in the world.
One of its kind in the world!

50. “Coup d’etat”
On 30th of September 1965, between 200,000 to I.5 million
PKI “members” were killed.

51. 2002: Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)

52. US$21.06 million mark up at the Traffic Corps

54. Deputy chairman of the National Committee for West
Papua, killed by police forces on June 14, 2012

55. No one has been brought to justice for the shooting until
today. Instead Mako Tabuni was accused of a number of
violent actions

60. 35 Generals in Joko’s campaign team
(Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation)
Five Generals responsible for
human rights abuses, including
the murder of activists and
Papuan people. (Kontras,
Commission for disappeared
and violated victims)

61. http://www.kontras.org/eng/

62. Hope…………

63. Joko Widodo: Simple but smart
Graduated from
Gadjah Mada University,
Ranks 53rd in the 100 top Asian universities

64. Forestry Engineer

65. (seems) indifferent but (actually) ingenious

66. Honest & sincere to journalists

67. Biggest threat: elected VP

68. Two biggest goldmines in the world

70. Further reading:
 William H. Frederick and Robert L. Worden, editors.
Indonesia: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the
Library of Congress, 1993.
 Power Politics and the Indonesian Military, Damien
Kingsbury: Routledge, 2003
 http://indonesianpolitics.com/
 http://www.media.or.id/
 http://www.indopubs.com/panel2.html
 http://indonesia.elga.net.id/news.html
 Primadi, Riza, presentation “Media Lanskap di Indonesia”
 Arismunandar, Satrio, “Mass Media in Indonesia”, May
2011