I read newspapers since I was eight or nine years old. I remember how exiting it was to wait hours and hours for the daily papers and read the newspapers while it still smell of newly printed ink. Yes, I have to wait hours because I spent my childhood in Bali, where the national morning media arrive at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. They only print in Jakarta, at the time.
Each time I receive the papers, I will lay down in the floor of my home veranda, spread the papers in front of me, and read item per item of the news section. My favorite section was the sports column. Kompas newspapers, the one that I read from early age-- had a unique style for sports reporting and writing. Sometime their writers just use the game as a metaphor to explain other things in life, the philosophy of the game, the strategy and those sort of things.
I also love to read the art section. Back in those days, Kompas always publish a novel before it went to print. They will run the story in the bottom row of the art page. The space was so limited, they have to continue publishing it the next day edition.
The continuous stories also serves as a pulling factor for readers like me. I remember waiting impatiently for the next morning papers, only because I was so desperate to know what will happen to the characters in the novel. These stories offer me a glimpse of adult lives.
Of course, I also read the headlines. But, as everyone well aware, you cannot expect anything from current affair news under the Soeharto regime. It was good news all round, no bad news at all. No critics, no demonstration, no anger. Indonesian that pictured in Kompas'reportage --and all other media under Soeharto-- is people who love to smile, to compromise, to work hard. Everything should be smooth, without a single dissent. All of the problems occurred under his administration was swept under the carpet, nobody ever realize it.
I remember the buzz word that day was "take off" period. That is a promise made by Soeharto, over and over again like a mantra. “Work hard, work harder, our nation plane will soon “tinggal landas” (take off –ed) and we'll become a modern and rich country.”
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That is why when '98 reformation came along, a lot of people --especially those who live outside the capital and have no other source of information except national media-- shocked. They were unable to comprehend the events unfolded before their eyes. This is a proof that Indonesian media influence to people and their way of thinking-- were so powerful, and eventually made them unable to think critically.
The way media presented good news for more than three decades made people wondering: is this reformation a real thing? Is this whole allegation toward Soeharto and his family are true? How come the picture of our country suddenly change and now its different compared to the picture from the media all this time?
They got confuse and become apathetic. They want to involve and participae but unable to move their feet, let alone command their brain. They cant move because they themselves have not yet decide, which side they were in; what is their values; what is their ideal; what is their vision.
So, eventually, all they can do now is protesting, and criticizing. They enjoy it since they never got a chance to do so under Soeharto. They dream of living under Soeharto's regime again, but this time without the nepotism, and without Soeharto's children. They forgot that all of the success stories of Soeharto happened with consequences: no freedom of expression, no equality before the law, no justice for the poor, and above all: a system where a single person, a single political party can decide the faith of more than 200 million people.
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Indonesia got into this crisis in the first place because of the media. Media owners, journalists and media professional association bowed under the power of Soeharto and Orde Baru. The journalists use their media to report false events, bogus allegation, empty appreciation to the government. By doing so, they have lied to their readers, and to themselves.
Nowadays, since we are all so used to read good news in the media-- we got depressed whenever we read bad news in newspapers' headlines. We cant escape because everything in the papers is bad news now, front page to back page.
However, unlike others, these bad news make me happy. Not that I enjoy my fellow Indonesian suffer, but because other reason. These kind of news will make government official eventually work harder. These will also help them to spot their weaknesses and hopefully able to improve it.
Anybody who are depressed when they read newspapers these days, is people with mind in the past. They miss the old days where the media full of good but fake-- news stories. They love to be deceived like that.(*)
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