Page 59 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

48 Jonathan Woodier
views, therefore, still dominate Indonesian Islam. But, an unwillingness to
challenge the more doctrinaire views of religious extremists has allowed them to
shape the public debate in Indonesia, and this has been reflected in the media, and
has been a particular focus for the foreign media. While in the streets, where lad’s
magazine FHM and Cosmopolitan rub shoulders with religious tracts, ‘the cultural
battle for the soul of Indonesia can look like a tropical rumble between the Jihadis
and the sex columnists’ (Donnan 2005: W3).
Action by the US in Afghanistan and Iraq has continued to unite Indonesians
in opposition to Washington making Abu Bakar Ba’asyir (the alleged spiritual
leader of the Jemmah Islamiah terror network) a hero to many for standing up to
the US. While the more secular media like Kompass covered his trial in a way that
was fitting with the liberal intention that media be the history of first record,
coverage by Republika was seen as more pro- Ba’asyir. The new President,
Yudhoyono, even maintains that Jemmah Islamiah’s existence in Indonesia is still
unproven, which ‘does not bode well for Washington and its allies hope that the
organisation will be banned’ (Donnan 2004: 2).
Despite the initial flurry of activity after the Bali bombings, attempts to eradicate
the cells of radical Islamic terrorists in Indonesia looked flimsy, as political ambitions
meant the elite in Jakarta were ‘tracking the responses of the major Muslim leaders’
(Desker 2002). The election of Yudhoyono suggests, however, public support for those
who will seek to control militant Islam. A greater focus on security means that the
military, momentarily pushed aside by the initial surge of popular democratic fervour
in the wake of Suharto’s fall, are stepping up to retake their place as a dominant force
in the country and its political culture, restored to their dual function, as both
defenders of the nation and as a social–political force in national development. This
could have an important impact on the environment in which the media operates.

The military and the media
Any consideration of the media environment in Indonesia must take into account
the military and their place in the political culture of the country. The military has
played a central role in the recent independent existence of Indonesia. Given that
the military by its very nature is neither an open nor a liberal institution, it is
likely that it can only serve as a constraint upon the development of a free press.
The Indonesian military had an active part in the development of the independent
Indonesian nation state. The army, which fought both the Dutch and the British to
secure independence after the Second World War, watched from the sidelines as
Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, courted the PKI (communist party), seizing
power with Suharto at its head in 1965, when it decided things had gone too far. For
much of Suharto’s ‘New Order’, politics was ‘centred on the officer class of the
Indonesian armed forces’ (Steinberg 1987: 425). The military was given its dwi
fungsi, or dual function as both a military and political force in Indonesian life, with
its brief to maintain national integrity and uphold the state ideology of pancasila.
Today, although the Indonesian military’s reputation has foundered on the
rocks of East Timor and other trouble spots in the Indonesian archipelago, and it