Page 71 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

60 Jonathan Woodier
media, and its electronic forms in particular, are seen as extending their fingers of
influence into the national political sphere in various ways, eliciting a response at an
elite level to the challenges to traditional forms of power and authority. Thus the
information technology that helped to push the Suharto regime from its post, from
video machines to mobile text messaging, can serve to ‘shake dominant political
visions and cultural traditions to the core’ (Lull 1995: 114).
In Indonesia’s Madrassas and Mosques, the 20 million mobile phones are seen
as having more political impact than a plural media, as Afghanistan and Iraq
provide kindling for the flames of hate building against the West and the US, in
particular. Local anger is joining global hate, whispered in the plotting and
scheming, etched on the bullets of resistance, and echoing in the blast of bombs
from Bali to Jakarta, and ‘South east Asian governments have been floundering
in the face of these threats’ (The Economist 2002a: 23).
As the American ‘war on terror’ has brought these local tensions onto the global
stage, it has complicated efforts to maintain current levels of press freedoms, not
only for foreign reporters, but also for their local counterparts. The importance of the
media in portraying the image of Indonesia – whether it is seen as a stable, coherent
community, or a fractured, disintegrating state beset by Islamic militants, the power
elites will want to control these images as they did in the past. As Foreign Minister
Hassan Wirayuda made clear, with a globalised media, nothing is purely local
anymore: ‘every domestic issue has a foreign policy aspect’ (Kurniawan 2004).
Writing about Indonesia in 2000, Harold Crouch suggested that the country
faced three crucial challenges: the creation of a sustainable and effective political
system based on democratic principles and capable of preventing a return of the
military to political power, dealing with separatist pressure, and trying to reverse
social disintegration, in particular ethnic and religious conflict. Crucial to all
these challenges is economic recovery, for ‘unless sustained economic recovery
can get under way, the long-term prospects of democratisation, national unity and
social peace will remain questionable’ (Crouch 2000: 132).
The shadows of continued violence, or the return to a more authoritarian
government in order to hold the country together (Kingsbury and Aveling 2003: 8),
have darkened over the last three years with the solidification of Islamic funda-
mentalism around the world under the apparent auspices of al Qaeda. But,
although internal issues dominate the focus of Indonesia’s political elite, the new
government clearly understands they have a global audience. With the media key
to perceptions, both internal and external, as to whether Indonesia is a viable state
where foreign investment and democratic pluralism can flourish, media produc-
tion and reception will remain a site of contestation for interest groups in
Indonesia, just as communications technology will continue to be used to mount
challenges to the established authorities. Given that few elements either cultural
or legal exist to help protect the freedom the media currently enjoys, like Thailand
in 1973, they could prove just as temporary.

Note
1 Later known as Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI).