Page 65 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

54 Jonathan Woodier
and TF-1 (France), only increased competition for viewers, and these carried the
pictures of chaos, as the army battled protestors in 1998, into homes in Indonesia
and around the world, leading to Suharto’s resignation.

The beginning of the end
By the end of the 1990s, the rumblings of the middle class against the overwhelming
weight of the New Order were apparent. Suharto moved to suppress dissent, in a
time honoured tradition, turning on the media that had the courage to speak the
unease the middle class felt. But, technological developments were to play a fur-
ther role in undermining Suharto and amassing the movement against him. It has
been the growth of the Internet in the 1990s that has really complicated South-
east Asia’s governmental efforts to control the flow of information, and Indonesia
was no exception.
Suharto was keen to continue to deliver economic growth for Indonesia, and
being part of the IT revolution was seen as key to this goal. Indonesia had a
sophisticated telecommunications system as a result of its early investments in
satellite communications, and in 1997, as the Asian financial crisis was about to
break over the country, plans for a network and information system (Nusantara-21)
were developed, representing the expression of Suharto’s vision for the contin-
ued development of Indonesia and growth in social prosperity by embracing
communication and information technology.
What this vision did not entail, however, was the growing role the alternative
media played in the expression of dissent and the organisation of opposition to the
Suharto regime. The Internet had a key role in both the fall of Suharto, by help-
ing to coalesce the opposition through the expression of dissent on websites, and,
through its role both in the provision of information and in the voting process, the
rebuilding of democracy. Indeed, if radio was the communication medium of
Indonesian independence, then the Internet might well ‘vie for top billing in the
fall of Suharto...’ (Sen and Hill 2000: 194).
Under Suharto, the Internet, which became accessible in Indonesia from 1995,
offered an unfettered, un-scrutinised communication tool and allowed the rela-
tively free flow of information. Post Suharto, the Internet was used in the 1999
and the 2004 elections to provide transparency and credibility for the election
process: votes were monitored on the General Elections Commission’s Internet
site. Those who had used the Internet in the information war against Suharto still
see it as a technology of democracy and its further use in the election process was
to ‘authenticate the newly emerging democracy in their eyes’ (Hill 2002: 5).
While Suharto’s regime found the Internet difficult to contain, it was the
impact of broader media coverage of the reaction to the economic collapse in
1997, which led to his resignation. As the currency collapsed, dropping from
2,400 Rupiah to 17,000 Rupiah to 1 US dollar in January 1998, demonstrators
battled with soldiers in the streets of Jakarta. Even the mainstream media found
commercial dictates forced their distance from the official voice (Sen and Hill
2000: 132). Local television stations began to broadcast pictures of the protests.