Hasil Pemilihan Umum Tahun 1957 - 1958 di tingkat Provinsi dengan perbatasan provinsi yang disesuaikan dengan Tahun 2008
Kajian
Shooting a few messengers 1994-06-01 On Tuesday 21 June 1994, the Government announced that publishing licenses for three notable
news publications have been withdrawn. Included among those publications to be closed were
Tempo, the nation’s premier newsweekly together with DeTIK, which had been a fast growing
newspaper and Editor a medium sized but well placed news weekly.
Following the closures I decided to visit with friends. I am fortunate to have friends and
acquaintances in each of the three news groups. The general atmosphere was one, not
surprisingly, of anger. They were also a little confused as to why exactly now such action was
taken and why it was taken against their papers and not others. Many saw some kind of link
between their closure and their active and critical coverage of the recent purchases of the East
German navy fleet at the urging of the State Minister for Research and Technology, Prof
Habibie.
Regardless of what might actually have been behind the decisions, the decision itself was rather
“daring” by the Government. More than daring however I think the decision is actually better
described as heavy handed, almost taken with the desire to instill fear among the others.
I am increasingly of the view that the current Government is demonstrating a weakening capacity
to maintain control in the urban areas through the subtle old strategies of co–option and seems
increasingly willing (compelled?) to resort to coercion.
This view is also taking into account considerations of the failure of the Government to ensure
that its preferred candidates or outcomes could come to fruition in recent elections for leadership
positions in PDI, NU, Muhammadiyah and even Kadin.
This kind of response may be an attempt by the Government to try to re–impose control over the
society. We went through the “peek a boo” period of openness in 1989–1990. Somewhat vocal
parliamentarians have now been removed from the Parliament. The Government seems to have
decided that the season of openness is now closed. The size of demonstrations that have actually
taken place in the main streets of Central Jakarta following the announced closures would
suggest that some people have a different opinion on the merits of openness and the role of the
press. {These notes were “put to paper” on 14 June 2008 and represent the recollection of my thinking
at the time back in June 1994. At that time I was not really professionally engaged in political
analysis. I was, however, fully involved with a major Australian national promotion event
“Australia Today Indonesia ‘94”. Sadly two of the press outlets with which the promotion
program had developed programs were closed, that is Tempo and deTIK. It left our press
strategy a little limp! We also had to prepare for 2 visits of the PM and God knows how many
Ministers – Federal and State}
