Page 132 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

Conclusion 121
The influence of the mainstream media in some states in perpetuating the
norms of the ‘war on terror’ and linking indigenous conflicts into the ‘war’ for
national political reasons has some profound implications. First, the solutions to
most of these conflicts are predominantly national in nature, but the nature of
media reporting gives the impression that defeating al Qaeda militarily is the key,
when it is not. This is one of the great fallacies of the ‘war on terror’ but the main-
stream media in these states generally tends to perpetuate it. Second, it alienates
potential support from the international community. The potential benefits of
international political support for some of the conflicts mentioned in this book
were illustrated when Indonesia was forced to grant independence for East Timor
under pressure from the international community. However the international
community were not seriously engaged in any of these conflicts prior to 9/11, so
the effect of this reporting is probably to stifle any future support that might have
come from the international community.
A number of groups have recognised the consequences of being dragged into
the ‘war on terror’ and have attempted to distance themselves from al Qaeda and
terrorism. In Indonesia, Ayip Syafruddin, chairman of the Communication
Forum, a group associated with the militant group Laskar Jihad stated that ‘We
have nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden...We have no contact with them. We
have a different vision’. Similarly GAM insists it has no links with outside groups
(Suh 2001). Whilst in the Philippines, the MILF has publicly renounced terrorism
but is still fighting a running battle in the media over whether, and how, it is
linked to JI. It is indicative of the pervasive nature of the ‘war on terror’, however,
that even though the Indonesian media and government do not portray the con-
flict in Aceh as part of the ‘war’, the West has shown itself to be eager to support
Jakarta’s efforts to quell the conflict.

Media impacts: the media as an agent
of change or stability
The impact of the media on the conflicts identified in this book has been varied
but generally limited. In particular, there does not appear to be any correlation
between media outputs and the spread of militant ideologies, and neither has
media reporting generated widespread public or political pressure to accede to the
demands of any of these groups. Even where the media has articulated the root
causes of violence and the objectives of combatant groups and communities,
there does not appear to be any widening of those conflicts. The possible excep-
tion is in Gujarat, where local pro-Hindutva newspapers have complemented the
work of the sangh parivar in spreading the Hindutva ideology.
The same is true with the reporting of al Qaeda’s messages. Despite the failure
of the US media to win the ‘battle of ideas’, al Qaeda has also discovered the
limitations of the globalised media for influencing the reporting of conflicts at
national level. There is little evidence of al Qaeda’s pan-Islamist ideology gaining
a significant foothold in the Muslim populations of Indonesia, Malaysia, or the
Philippines. Bin Laden has also failed to co-opt any of these indigenous conflicts