CHAPTER III

ELITE EXPERIENCE AND VIEWS OF THE MASS MEDIA

A study of any sample of the Indonesian public, its attitudes, experiences,

and reactions will allow a better evaluation of the role of the mass media in Indo­

nesian society than would be possible by merely analysing the media. Especially is
this so if the analysis were made only by non—Indonesians or by specialists concerned

only with the media.

A study of an Indonesian sample representative of the population as a whole

would be very desirable as a means of supplementing and checking the existing

analysisj however, it was not possible for me to get such a sample and instead I

chose a sample from the Indonesian population resident in the United States.

Such a sample is non—representative and non-random, being a sample composed

mainly of people with highly specialized occupations, elite as to education and social

status. As long as the limitations of such a sample are not overlooked it can be
highly informative since the members of the group are more knowledgeable than the

average and more politically aware, although not necessarily politically active,

I administered a questionnaire, partly technical and structured, partly

informal and open-ended, taking a minimum session of 1 1/2 hours to 28 Indonesians

resident in the New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston areas. Partial interviews

were conducted with 5 other visiting Indonesians. The sample ranged in age from 21
to .45, with the average above 30; 19 men and 9 women; 15 married, 12 single,

1 divorced; 12 working in different, branches of the Indonesian Foreign Service,

ranging from secretaries to career diplomats, 7 college of university teachers,

4 undergraduates, 3 housewives, and one businessman. All but 4 had come to the

United States after 1966. All had completed secondary schooling, 23 had been to

college, 3 of them abroad. The families of 20 out of the 28 originated in Java,

10 of them in Djakarta; 4 came from North Siamatra, 1 Southeast Kalimantan, 1 North

Sulawesi, 1 from Bali and 1 from /hnbon.

All 28 members of the sample use Indonesian and English fairly freely. The
prime language of 17 members of the sample was not Indonesian. For 11 it was

Javanese, for 3 Sudanese, 1 Atjehnese, 1 Batak, 1 Balinese, At least 20 know Dutch

well enough to read it.

-10'7-
 -108-

The Questionnaire

The purpose of the questionnaire was- to elicit information, first on the mass

media available and the use made of the media from childhood on. Second, on the

family, school, youth organization, 'college, and student organizations as sources or

channels of political Information and as factors of opinion-formation. Third, on the

adult interviewees' activities as purveyors of information and opinion. A major

item in the questionnaire is the systematic evaluation by the interviewees themselves

of a comprehensive list of Indonesian dailies, as well as of radio and television

programs.

The considerable number of open-ended questions were designed mainly to clarify

facts about the history of Indonesian media which had remained confused on the basis

of secondary sources and by persons active in the media.

Many interviewees remarked that the questionnaire brought theto to reminisce

intensely; as they were very cooperative and open the result was the creation of an

interesting picture of the life of the Indonesian elite in the previous generation.

The questionnaire is reproduced as in Appendix A.

Use of the Media

Fii^st, as to physical limitations on the use of media; out of the 28 interviewees'

families, only 4 lived permanently in a location with less than 5,000 inhabitants. A
good number more spent parts of their childhood in villages or on remote islands.

Only 2 report no electricity at home during their entire childhood; 5 report no radio

in the house during their childhood; out of the 28, 15 had no telephone at home.

However, all report the possession of radios in their last residence before coming to

the U.S. and a good number also transistors; telephones are still not universal,

and pay phones seem not to exist at all and it is considered decidedly impolite for

a person not possessing a phone to ring somebody who has a phone at home. As 13
interviewees moved house frequently during their childhood, for them the availability

of electricity and radio varied.

In contrast to these limitations on communications dependent on electricity,

the use of printed media was very high. Only 7 reported no daily newspaper in their
 -109-

chlldhood home, but in one of these the only existing weekly of the area was

subscribed to, and one of the 7 remembers fetching a dally every day from a parent's
colleague's home. On the other hand, 11 report more than one daily in their child­

hood home. Magazines were common: only 4 homes had none.

Newspaper Readers. What kinds of papers did they read? Out of the 14 inter­

viewees whose childhood falls in the pre-War Dutch period, 10 report only a Dutch
daily (or dailies) and only 2 or 3 report an additional daily in Javanese or Malay,

Most read one of the 4 Batavia (Djakarta) Dutch dailies; in many cases the Dutch paper

reached the parents' home after a delay of up to several days. During the Japanese

Occupation newspaper consumption dropped. Six out of the 15 whose childhood or youth
falls in the 3 years of the Japanese Occupation only remembered the Japanese

controlled Asia Raya in Indonesian, and one the second, Asahi Shimbun. The impression

is that the interviewees hardly ever read these papers. Five families continued to

subscribe to Dutch papers after the War until the final ban on all Dutch papers in

the mid-50's. In the so-called revolutionary years of '45-'49, Indonesian dallies

appear in a number of the homes while in others, especially those situated in the
Dutch-held areas, the two Dutch dailies which reappeared after the war are still

used exclusively. The names of Indonesian dailies remembered from the revolutionary

years need not necessarily be the ones actually read in the period: the ones

remembered are also the most famous ones.

Puring the liberal period, 1950-58*, the use of Indonesian language dailies
increased and the best remembered are the well-known liberal papers of the period.

The preference for these liberal papers persists during the Guided Democracy period
of '59-'65 until their eventual shut-down. After this appear the Protestant paper

and the one English language paper. The Communist daily and the Nationalist Party
dally appear only on four and two occasions, respectively, but this may be the

outcome of mere caution on the part of some of my interviewees, since these papers

were very widespread at the time.

For the New Order period—October '65 to date—most interviewees have been

purchasing their own papers, and 10 report buying 2 or more dailies regularly. This

in addition to reading the other dailies in their offices. Obviously, the two years
succeeding the Coup were years of Increased general interest in the dally press and

this is reflected in the interviewees' reports. Indeed one interviewee called

 - 110 -

reading all the Djakarta papers "the educated man's game."

So much for the kinds of papers read. As to who read them, it would be

Interesting to notice that 13 interviewees report having started reading the daily

papers before the age of 10. While all mention that the father of the family was

first to read the paper, arid several also mention the father's filing newspapers or

clippings for his office use, only 8 do not mention the mother among the readers.

In the few households where a daily in Javanese or Sundanese accompanied the Dutch
dally, the interviewee remarked that this was read more frequently by the mother or

grandparents. The same holds for the local language magazines. Boys read papers

earlier and more than girls, and were encouraged by their fathers to do so. During

the Dutch period the reading- of Dutch dailies was a method of major Importance in

acquiring the Dutch language. Several interviewees remember father selecting

religious or moral parts of the papers for them to read. Most of the girls admit

to have started their newspaper readings not for the political columns but for the
children's corner or such; a good number of the boys report having read the comics

first, but the news items too. The majority of the households were large, sometimes

including not only siblings but also cousins. All households also included servants.

Interviewees were rather hazy about their servants' literacy and reading habits, but

most agreed that while some male servants were literate, all older female servants

were definitely not. No reading aloud of papers or magazines tb illiterate members

of the household was reported, with the exception of one case of reading to an

Illiterate grandmother.

As the numbers of printed copies of daily papers in Indonesia was extremely

small by Western (or even some Asian) standards, it is Important to find out whether

the newspaper-purchasing elite has any established hhbits of sharing their used copies

with their less prosperous neighbors. Among the 28 interviewees, only one remembered

the handing of a paper to a neighbor, and one, mentioned before, who fetched one
from father's colleague.

Asked about the availability of reading material in public places, only one

interviewee reports the availability of dailies in a North Sumatra social club, and

only one reports to have been able to read papers during the Japanese Occupation in

a small bookstore near the mosque in Magelan. In Djakarta dailies were available in
 -lli-

Dutch reading rooms open to members only. All report that their small school

libraries were poor and contained only books. Publicly available dailies appear in
the liberal period and have been continuing up to date. Thirteen report the avail­

ability in the period since 1949 of dailies in reading rooms or libraries, but only

in the larger cities. Only one does not report having noticed the dallies on display

in wire cages on the walls, chiefly at the Ministry of Information, in front of

their branch offices and in other public places. The cities mentioned were Djakarta,

and Bandung, Jogja, Madiun, and Menadq (N. Sulawesi).

Magazine Readers. Twelve among the 29 pre-War magazines subscribed to by

interviewees' families were not in Dutch or English but in a local language. This

reflects the earlier start of the young nationalist movement and the Javanese

cultural revival movement in the field of magazines. During the Japanese Occupation
there was a near-cpmplete absence of magazines; one interviewee reports that his

only reading material during those days was an attic-full of old Dutch magazines.-
The Dutch light-fweight, humorous and women's magazines reappeare4 in the post-*War

period. Soon also English language magazines such as Readers Digest, Life, Time,

Newswe.ek, etc. are mentioned, but they are too expensive to purchase. In Djakarta

a.folder of assorted magazines can he subscribed to for home reading to be returned

afterwards to the reading rooms of one of the cultural centers. Higher government

officials and faculty read recent specialized magazines and learned journals in
their departments or university liferariesi Few serious magazines, literary or

political, exist in Indonesia today and this is reflecte4’in the reports of the

interviewees: Most of these elite households seem to have subscribed recently to

only one or two of the rather lightweight women's weeklies, -for weekend reading.

While, again, magazines, just as dallies, seem not to haye beqn available
to interviewees in public placeq during their.childhood and youth (as opposed to

their availability for most in their place of work during adult life), a considerable

number mention having read magazines privately in friends' or teachers' homes.

Radio. The interviewees mention all in all 16 different Indonesian radio

stations, some of which, at least in the pre-War period, were merely relay stations
of the Batavia central Dutch program. Some could receive up to 4 different domestic

stations. Broadcasting was organized in the 1930's in the main Dutch Broadcasting
 -112 -

organizatlon, MAVRO, and the much weaker native broadcasting federation. Six among
the 14 interviewees whose childhood was pre-War report that the domestic programs

listened to at home were all in Dutch. Ddring all the periods foreign stations were

listened to widely. The foreign stations, in order of frequency of mention by

sample were, Radio Australia, BBC, Voice of’America, and Hilversun. Malaysia, Manila

and Singapore were mentioned oitly once each; but the most knowledgeable interviewee

stated that Radio Malaysia is very popular nowadays. In the pre-War' period listening

to overseas programs, Dutch or other, was a normal activity and obviously often the
major gate to the big world for the Isolated more educated.

The Japanese Occupation authorities were not .satisfied with completely unifying

and controlling all internal broadcasting, but also undertook to prevent all listening

to foreign stations—(tampering with, and then sealing, every receiver licensed to

operate). In Menado, Sulawesi, the Japanese banned radio receivers altogether. With

the exception of one Interviewee, whose family lived next door to the Japanese

commandant, all report having listened to foreign stations regardless. Even when

Father was Interned, Grandfather went on listening.

As to the programs listened to at home during childhood, most interviewees

report listening to newscasts with their fathers as standard ritual. Sixteen mention

that the news was discussed regularly in the family circle', so that the father was

not the only listener. .Other programs listened to were music in general, Gamelan

music, Wayang plays, announcements, sports, radio plays, and-other entertainment.

(Again, the preferences are fairly uniform.). Four of the post-War-born living in

Djakarta and Bandung report listening regularly to the same Djakarta children's

program. All male interviewees report regular listening to. the. central RRI newscast,

usually twice a day. But some of the women and girls report listening mainly to

music. Foreign stations are listened to by most interviewees for foreign,news, and

comments ns well as for Western music of all sorts. All the foreign stations

mentioned nowadays have programs ip In,done,slan. It is also worth noting that in my

sample the listening to forms of traditional culture disappears almost entirely.

Thus, for example, no one mentions Gamelan musip, or Krotok .(popular, Javanese opera),

and only one mentions listening to Wayang plays as an adult.

f .•
 -113-

Public Radio. Public radio ^as int/roduced by the Japanese Occupation. Loud­

speakers were installed in public places—the square, the cross-roads, the market,

in front of the government official’s house—and blared all day from dawn to the

sta-tion close down. This made a lasting impression—though negative—^on those

interyiewees who experienced it in childhood or youth. Only one Interviewee.who

had spent this .period on smaller outer Islands had escaped it. No clear picture

emerges as to when, if ever, the system was abolished. The explanation seems to be

that when no longer kept up, the system collapsed. It was not renewed during the

revolutionary and the liberal period, though in Jogja the system is reported to have

been operative during the revolutionary period as well. Guided Democracy reintro­

duced it, apparently on a much smaller scale; only 8 out of the whole sample of 28

remember having been subject to public broadcasts during that period. The system

was then operated by the local government officer, but usually only for a part of the

day, and covering news and announcements, not to mention the rather frequent speeches

of the Great Leader of the Revolution. For special relays like these mobile units

joined forces—at least in Djakarta. Again, since the end of the Sukarno era, or

even before, the network of public loudspeakers broke down and nowadays the much

less frequent occasions of special addresses of the President, the opening of

Parliament, etc., are covered by, mobile units supplied by the armed forces—apparently

mainly in the large cities and at such crowded spots as night fails or night markets.

The Interviewees, typically, had no information as to tbe present availability of

mobile units for special occasions in the rural areas.

Television. Since it was established only in 19^2, only my youngest inter­

viewees had experienced television in their parental homes. All 5 of those 25 years

old or under report television in the family home, all in Pjakarfa. Any Inquiry

about preference for programs is irrelevant because television sets are on continuously

for the full 4 houts transmission period. Among the interviewees living as adults

in their own households, only a minority do not possess a set qnd report going to
neighbors to,watch important programs. Several interviewees, especially females,

mention that they prefqr television newscast^ to radio although the former is the

shorter. All interviewees prefer listening to speeches by politicals military, and

economic dignitaries on television rather than radio, these being broadcast

simultanqously.
 -114-

The Infrequent television panel and discussion programs, which have been

introduced by the New Order, are greatly appreciated and considered special ‘occasions
which justify visits to owners 'of sets.

Factors of Political Information, Schools and Youth Movements

The families of the interviewees, and especially their fathers, certainly had

acted as the most important political Influences on them. Most of the fathers in the

pre-War period were employees of the Dutch government. They were concerned with the
fate of the motherland and anxiously followed the European political disasters and

later the Japanese expansion. Most seem to have expressed few political views on the

Internal affairs of the East Indies. One Interviewee nevertheless stressed the under-

lylng nationalist sympathies of his father: he mentioned his father's reading the

then most important nationalist magazine (in Dutch): the father, a school principal

and later school inspector, did not interfere with the nationalist activities of some

of the teachers under him. Generally, it seems to have been taken for granted in
these households that the sons should follow their fathers' footsteps in providing

the mid-level administrative and educational cadres in the service of the East India

■government. No clear political difference appears according to the lines of

religious affiliation. Some households were described as mildly Santrl (modernist
Moslem), sending their children to schools and scouting movements run by

Muhammadyah. Only a small minority were Christian but a considerable group never­

theless sent their children for at least part of their schooling to Christian schools.

Most households had a syncretist Javanese background, but only few aimed at the way
of life of the Javanese upper class.

Preservation of family accord and coherence in things political seemed prevalent.

None of the interviewees mentlonfed any overt disagreement over political matters with

their family during adolescence or adult life. All their families seem to have

successfully adjusted to the nationalist climate of independence. (One father had

been interned by the Japanese, and one father was a prominent political prisoner

during Guided Democracy.) None of the .interviewees gave the impression that either

the sharp religious—political cleavages-y/ithin Indonesian sbclety or the sharp

political upheavals in the last quarter of a century, have caused any lasting or
 -115-

bitter family rift. If there has been any, they certainly took good care to avoid

touching on it.

Schools were minor factors in the formation of political opinions for most

interviewees, who could only with difficulty remember topics with political implica­

tions on which information was given or opinions voiced. The Dutch ideal of school

as a neutral place was preserved well Into Independence.

During the immediate pre-War period political information was limited to foreign

events. There was no systematic treatment of the subject but, especially in the case

of teachers of Dutch nationality, strong anti-Nazi feelings and anxiety over the

situation in Europe were expressed. The large number of Interviewees who attended

Chfistian schools reported that the teachers, although not expressing overt political

views, did inculcate moral-religious values which might at times be construed as

mildly critical of the government. Teachers in the Catholic schools and in some of

the Protestant schools made some attempts to convert their pupils to Christianity.

During the whole Dutch period overt political expression was rare, Only one

interviewee tells of teachers expressing nationalist views favoring the progressive

Moslem party, Masjumi; one interviewee reports having been influenced by a teacher
who had been arrested by the Dutch and shared his experiences with his pupils. It

seems clear th^t, at least the better Indonesian schools in which instruction was

partly carried on in Dutch were not hotbeds of the Indonesian nationalist movement.

It may well be that the elementary schools, where instruction was carried out in the

native language, were in better conformity with the oft observed phenomenon of

school teachers serving as the propagators of young nationalist movements.

The Japanese Occupation changed the atmpsphere in school drastically. The

Japanese demanded the performance of an allegiance, ritual at the beginning of each

4
school day and the language of Instruction changed abruptly to Indonesian, the chosen

national language of the then very small nationalist movement. Pro-Japanese indoc­

trination was part of the obligatory Japapese language and Japanese style physical
training (wrestling and boxing) courses. The teachers of these two courses, often

Japanese, took these duties seriously, whereas other non-Japanese teachers merely

conformed superficially. With the advance of t^e War and the outbreak of some minor

rebellions against the Japanese, the resentment amongst the students expressed

itself in typical student style of poking fun at the solemn morning ritual. Some
 - 116
-

teachers by now shared anti—Japanese feelings with their students. Many interviewees

remember fondly that though such non—cooperation was punished harshly by the Japanese

supervisors, the Indonesian teachers gladly turned a blind eye. In this situation
shared nationalist feelings inevitably developed in the schools.

During the years of transition, 1945-1949, the situation in the Indonesian

school was that of a sharp division between the areas which returned to the hands

of Dutch administrators, mainly the Djakarta area, and those areas in the hands of

the Republic, which were affected by the "police actions" and the long drawn-out

struggle between the Dutch and the Republican forces. In the Dutch areas the pre-War

system was fully reestablished—Dutch language, intensive studies, political

neutrality; in the Republican areas schooling was regularly interrupted and the

nationalist military and pdlitical struggle was openly brought to school. Inter­

viewees report up to 2 full years of loss of schooling in these areas, and/or leaving
school to Join the Students' Army, With the transfer of sovereignty in 1949 Bahasa

Indonesia became the basic language of instruction all over the country. Some Dutch
high schools, especially in Djakarta, continued, however, to function until about

1956 and to teach partly in Dutch. A certain status upset was Involved in the change,

as the pupils of the most prestigious all-Dutch schools were now at least mildly

suspect as not being patriotic enough. The change-over to Indonesian as the basic
language of Instruction seems to have caused little hardship to any interviewees.

Those who originated from the Outer Islands or had spent part of th'eir childhood

there had used Malay as one of the spoken local languages and in some instances it
had been used as one of the languages of instruction in school. In some parts of

Java, as I learn from an interviewee from Jogja, in the 1930's and mid-1940's children
from Javanese speaking households often spoke Malay as well. On Java itself, -of

course, a start at introducing Indonesian had been made under the Japanese. One
interviewee from Djakarta spoke Dutch in school, Javanese at home, and Indonesian

with the servants. Last but not least, Bahasa Indonesia is an extremely eclectic
language whose vocabulary incorporates in addition to its Malay grammar and base,

Javanese, Dutch, English and Arabic words.,

During the liberal period, 1949-58, neither political information nor

political opinion were purveyed in any intensive or systematic monolithic way in
 -117-

Indonesian schools. The political polemics of the period intruded into the conver­

sations of the students, but usually outside the classroom.

With the beginning of Guided Democracy the systematic teaching of Sukarno's

Indonesian Ideology appeared in the form, of a .civics course, where the current
central slogan of "Manipol/Usdek" (Guided Democracy and Guided Economy) was

Inculcated. Judging from recollections and responses of my interviewees the impact

of such indoctrination was rather mij.d. In the Christian schools it most probably

was neutralized by the universallst—religious—moral values advocated by the teachers.

I have in my sample no representative of the militant Moslem boarding school of

either the traditional or the reformed type. According to the observations of

9
Lance Castles, the modernist type of Moslem boarding school, the Pondok, imparted

a system of values and attitudes which, though not overtly conflicting with the
official Ideology, was separate from and alien to it. Their frame of reference and

way of life was that of the commimlty of Islam, their aims militant Islam, anti­

communism, and individual economic advancement.

The great upheaval that occurred in the Indonesian school system, especially

in the grade schools of Central and Eastern Java, in the aftermath of "Gestapu," is not

reflected at all in the experiences of my interviewees. The youngest members of my

sample attended the uppermost grades of high school at the time. The civics course

Introduced by Sukarno continues under the New Order in high schools and colleges but

its content is now "Pantjasila" (the five principles of the State Philosophy). All

schools in Indonesia now have mandatory religious instruction of some kind.

University life proper started in Indonesia, only after Independence, as under

the Dutch there were only two technical institutes of higher learning. Both

political Information and discussion were somewhat more pronounced on campus. At

least some of the faculty, especially those teaching economics and the social sciences

in general, seem to have related their teaching to current problems. Most of the
teaching assistants were affiliated to a political party. There were even rumors of

grading according to the instructors' political views. During this period lively
political discussions were regular though, again, much more outside the classroom

than in it. While discussions went mainly along party lines, more general issues

Indonesia, No. > PP.

 - 118 -

were also taken up, such as Marxism vs. private eaterprlse. With the introduction,
of Guided Democracy and the clamping dovjn of ideological conformity some members of

faculty persisted in expressing non-conformist views; the subsequent dismissal of

such professors has left an impression on one Interviewee who was a student and

another who was himself a dismissed' professor.

In my sample there were only 3 interviewees who wer6 undergraduates in

Indonesia since the 1965 Coup. All 3>, reported that political information was given

on campus, by teachers and they knew about the political sympathies of several of their
teachers the main groups being NU (conservative Moslem)., PMI (the new Moslem

Party—modernist), and PSI (the banned "Socialist" Party—with whose liberal views

an important group of academics are nevertheless identified.)

Finally,, among the 16 interviewees who fully answered questions about Indonesian
college life, 9 answered the question whether discussion was encouraged in college,

with an unqualified "yes"; all but one of these studied either during the Liberal

Period or the "New Order" period; 4 qualified their "yes" by "outside class" or
"some," and only 3 answered in the negative.

Whereas in some cases critical thinking was encouraged on campus, this is not

true of the Indonesian secondary school and the Indonesian youth organizations.

Among the complete sample of 28 interviewees there were only 4 unqualified positive

answers to the question, whether discussion was encouraged either in grade school or
in high school. Two out of the 4 were pupils in private Catholic schools and they

explained that most of the discussions were on ethical and religious topics; two

others qualified their positive answer by "within context of official views" and
"outside the classroom"; all the rest answered negatively. An even larger number

said that questions were not encouraged by teachers. It would seem that Indonesian

schools should be rated low not only in dissemination of political information and

development of opinion on political issues, but also in the encouragement of

Inquisitiveness and the general development of critical thinking.

This characteristic is even more pronounced in Indonesian youth organizations.

Eighteen interviewees were mertbers of some youth organisation, usually during their
junior high school years; most of these were scouting organizations and the largest

single group was government-sponsored. Four were affiliated with Muhammadyah, 3 with
 -119-

Christian institutions, and one with the PKI, In the group-affiliated organizations,
the political and/or religious views of the sponsoring group were voiced by the ^

youth leaders. Among all these 18 only one, a member of a scout troop of an exclusive

Catholic private school, reported encouragement of questions and discussion by the

youth leader albeit, again, mainly on ethical-religious but not on socio-economic

or political topics. To Siam up, these youth organizations of middle class or elite
yputh during their early adolescence, functioned as minor purveyors either of pro­
establishment or pro-special-group indoctrination. All but 2 gave no systematic

political information, and all but one encouraged neither questions nor discussion.

Do student organizations differ in these aspects from the youth organizations?

Seemingly yes. Fifteen interviewees belonged to student organizations, some of them

general, supposedly non-political organizations or mainly social clubs; 10 seem to

have been active, 8 report political information given, 2 report that the views voiced

by the organizers were those of the Government, 5 those of special political or

religious groups, 5 report regular question and answer sessions, and 8 regular

discussion sessions.

In short, Indonesian college teachers, are somewhat more politically-minded,,

more pluralistic, and more critically-minded than school teachers; and so apparently

are student leaders—morp so than scout masters.

Evaluation of Media

The Interviewees were asked to grade the Indonesian dailies according to the

quality of their news reporting and editorial comment on political and economic

issues. All but one, who came from the provinces, graded only the Djakarta papers.

Seven were able to compare most Djakarta dailies, others were familiar with only two

or three. While there was no unanimity regarding quality of the press, the dailies,

Angkatan Bersendjata and Berlta Yudha, emerged as a standard which the interviewees

preferred to my classification of above average, average, and below average. In

some cases, for instance in that of the official Moslem conservative party paper,
Duta Mas.jarakat, quantity (of reporting religious news) was equated with quality.

The question separating the press into "Government" and "Opposition" papers produced

little agreement. A lack of broadly accepted standards also showed up in answers

to the question whether the paper indulged in sensationalism and polemics. There

was, however, some consensus on standards of objectivity which showed up in answers'

to the question relating to the separation of straight news from comment and opinion.

The new type of reporting which confines itself to hard facts and the bare bones of

the news, with no interpretations or background explanations, appears to be an over

reaction to the former word-magic, sloganism-and wildly biased news reporting.

The reactions to my questions concerning the quality of ^editorial and lead

s^^ticle comments on current political issues, showed that the members of my sample

did not grade according to political sentiment, but employed quote objective standards

of journalistic quality. Nevertheless, the response to my question, who is your

favorite Indonesian journalist was disappointing: only one name appeared in a few

instances, even this one, Mochtar Lubis, is better known for his personal courage

and dramatic struggle rather than for his journalistic excellence. The reason may

well be the anon3nnity of most of Indonesia's journalism.

Before summing up my results I wish to quote a few random but revealing

responses and general observations: "All newspapers have the same sterile style of
advertizing." "All Djakarta dailies are notorious for bad economic reporting."

"There is no cause for ehthuslasm concerning the Indonesian press, especially when

compared in quality and skill with the Western press." Only those members of my

sample who work professionally in press liaison or in research in the foreign service,

have to read the Indonesian press regularly; the rest all prefer Western papers,

perhaps supplemented by the Foreign Office news cables. Indeed, from the information

of my sample, it became clear that although when living in Indonesia as adults they

^11 read several dailies, all those with any interest in international political

and economic news relied for these, even when in Indonesia, on fqreign news magazines

and on foreign specialized magazines. The Indonesian dally press is still not yet the

prime all-over news medium, but it is still chiefly important as the "house—organ" of

Indonesian domestic politics, at least for the educated elite.

A Summing Up

Kompas and Sinar Harapan, the Catholic and Protestant papers, clearly emerge
as the most widely esteemed and best known in my sample. Their rating on all points

is above average or average. They are considered mildly critical of the government
 - 121 -

and (with only one exception) capable of separating information from interpretation

and avoiding sensationalism.

Two prestigious old liberal papers banned mafny years ago but which reappeared

recently, Indonesia Raja and Pedoman are rated above average. Two members of my

sample who were familiar with them stated categorically that Pedoman is now the best ^

Djakarta paper.

The student paper Kami was known well enough for detaile'd rating by six

interviewees who gave it nearly as many above average markings as average ones.

The only below average marks it got were for local and regional news and advertising.

Thus its good qualities are appreciated in spite of its being considered "radically
critical" of the government and by some even biased and sensationalist.

Two party organs were rated "poor" by more knowledgeable Interviewees; the

Duta Masjarakat of the Moslem NU by three and the Suluh Marhaen of the nationalist

PNI by four.

There are ,21 dailies appearing on and off in Djakarta alone, and of these 13

were recognized by at least one interviewee. One interviewee also recognized 2 Jogja

dailies, but my sample was useless in evaluating any other provincial papers. Most

interviewees had adequate knowledge of the political orientation of Djakarta .papers,

though often not the intricacies and fine shadings of the sponsoring groups.
%

As to radio, the attitude of my sample towards the RRI was that* of general

coolness. Although nearly all male members listened to RRI news regularly at least

once a day, all those even mildly Interested also listened to foreign newscasts

daily. Not even the music programs won acclaim and foreign station and amateur stations

were declared better sources of music. Although most agreed that the decline of

political propaganda over the radio since the end of Guided Democracy was a welcome

improvement, they had doubts about answering in the affirmative my question as to

whether the RRI's quality had been improved significantly. The evaluation of amateur

stations was hampered by the fact that a considerable portion of my sample had been

absent from Indonesia during the heyday of student broadcasting in 1966-67. Other­

wise, the younger liked them better. One middle-^ged and especially observant inter>-

viewee remarked that internecine fighting had lowered^ the quality of amateur broad­

casting.
 - 122-

As to television, the attitude is father uncritical. It is still enough’ of

a novelty and an attraction to be consumed in quantities. Of course,- here there is

no competition and only prime time broadcasts are available. The limited programs
of political, economic, and generally Intellectual content, are especially highly

appreciated. Here an Improvement in comparison with the Old Order is noticed.

A Profile of an Indonesian Elite Group

What is striking about the members of my sample is their social background; as

all the academics are connected with state institutions, it turns out that all but

two members of my sample are usually direct or indirect employees of the government

or their dependents.

My study gives me a picture of the occupation of the generation of the fathers

of the interviewees. Most of these fathers were at the height of their working-lives

during the pre-War period, entering retirement not later than the fifties. The

fathers of only four of the youngest interviewees are still occupationally active.

The members of my sample belong, at least on the basis of the prestige of their

occupations and their potential positions, either to the upper-class or to the

upper-middle-class. (The academics among them, although having prestigious positions

and in one or two cases even considerable political influence, have all very small
salaries.) Of the 28 Interviewees, 2 were siblings, leaving us with a sample of 27

fathers. Of these 6 were upper-class, 4 in the Dutch pre-War period and 2 since

Independence. Of these 4, one was a member of the "parliament" under the Dutch,

2 academics in the service of the Dutch government, and one doctor who was a high

regional government official. The 2 prominent in the government since Independence

were an ambassador and an economist.. Of all 6’prominent, citizens, only 2 .had

Independent wealth: an arist;ocratic land-owner and a businessman. Of the remaining

21 fathers only one was a lower-middle-class artisan, 5 were middle-class not

employed by government, and 15 middle-class government employees. The 5 were 2

businessmen, a manager, a minister, and an architect. The 15 mjLddle—class government

employees were 6 teachers, 6 local government employees, one engineer, one police

commissioner and, finally, a state bank employee (now in the foreign service).

3
 -123-

The largest group, the middle-class civil servants (under the Dutch), share
interesting characteristics. They obviously fotmed a distinct social stratum and

tended to marry within it, and often several brothers followed the father's

employment in government service of one form or another. The interviewees who

belonged to this stratum frequently mention uncles in the same stratimi. One ^
characteristic is the tendency to be moved around frequently, often to small rural

locations, whether in Java or on outer islands. The most extreme case was one

engineer whose family would hardly accompany him as he was laboring in the wilds of

the interior of Southeast Borneo (now Kalimantan). Another characteristic is

career-mindedness: teachers tend to aim at advancement to principalshlp, to school

inspectorship, and local government officials at advancement from small district

office to larger urban and regional appointments. The most extreme case was one who

had made- it all the way from a school teacher in a small rural community where he had

to borrow his daily newspaper dally, to school inspectorship iri Djakarta. One

last common characteristic is the great concern and Investment of effort in the

education of sons and sometimes even of daughters. This concern often took the

form of using the support and services of an extended network of relatives—usually

uncles;—to place the young ones in location for appropriate schooling. In my entire

sample there were only 3 cases of youngsters attending boarding school, all for

brief periods.

These sons'and daughters of the old Dutch government-employed-middle-class

received a better than average education, acquired in addition to their foundation

in Dutch a facility in other languages and at least part of them a taste for studies

and for the big world. It is a great fortune for Indonesia that Independence did

not greatly affect the position of these families,- and that the sons and daughters

were not discredited because of their parents' old loyalties and that their talents

were used. This present upper-middle-class-white-collar group is overwhelmingly

recruited from a previous generation of white collar employees. With one lone exception
there was no upward mobility from a manual working father, and none at all was

recruited from the overwhelming majority of Indonesia's population, its rural peasantry.

How, well—informed is this elite group? For the citizens of a country which
has both extremely .primitive communications qnd has undergone periods of authoritarian
 -124-

and restrictive government In the field of foreign news, this group has had an

extraordinarily good and varied supply of informa^on. Before the War this elite

used a Western-style Dutch daily press, Dutch magazines and listened extensively to

diverse foreign radio stations. During the Japanese period the Western or Western-

style printed media disappeared but foreign radio-listening continued. Part of the

group returned to their use of Dutch dailies and magazines for about 10 years after

the War. Whereas foreign dailies are hardly available at all in Indonesia, foreign,

especially American, news magazines are used regularly by at least part of this

mainly Djakarta elite who have access to the foreign "cultural centers" and to

Government departments and university libraries. (This access to foreign news

magazines was somewhat diminished in the last period of Guided Democracy.)

In contrast, listening to foreign newscasts was rather general and practiced

by nearly all the members of the group throughout the internal political changes since

Independence. ■

How well has the domestic press served them as foreign news medium? All of

the members of the sample—or their parents—^have read some Indonesian dallies, at
least since 1949. During Guided Democracy Indonesian papers tended to report foreign

news in a distorted and biased manner. Before 1959 different political leanings made

for different points of view on the international scene. Since 1965 the all-out pro-
Communist point of view, both^pro-Peking and pro-Moscow, has disappeared from the

press but some variations in the evaluation of international events do occur.

Generally an atmosphere of objectivity, matter-of-factness and scrupulous neutrality

prevails.

The relative limited value of the Indonesian press as a foreign news medium

for this elite group is not caused by any political bias but by its generally limited

and poor coverage of such news as compared to the greater variety and depth available

in foreign news magazines and foreign newscasts and news comments.

The main value of the domestic dally press for our elite is as an information

medium about domestic politics, especially Djakarta politics. The members of the

sample were avid newspaper readers and remained so even during Guided Democracy when

the heavily controlled and conformist pres^ nevertheless sporadically provided

through its internal polemics some information on the jockeying for power within
Sukarno's coalition. When freer domestic political information and political comment
 -125-

and polemics were again permitted after the Coup~and more so from the beginning of

1966 onwards the interest of the elite in the press grew proportionately.

RRI plays for them a minor role as Information medium, as it serves merely as

a conveyor of headlines, official and local announcements and nowadays only spor­
adically as a medium for official policy pronouncements and even more rarely for

analysis of national issues by prominent personalities.

Amateur radio played for some of the interviewees and for a relatively short
period a role as an especially lively—if not always responsible—conveyor of comment

and polemics on the domestic political scene.

The members of the sample are poorly Informed about the state of the country

of its provincial cities and towns and especially of the huge rural sector.
This is also true of the Indonesian public as a whole and for that matter for

foreigners in the region. Regional political reporting is limited; social and economic

reporting (with the exception of official development projects) is even poorer.

^iiitsi^y restrictions and pressures play a certain role in limiting reporting' on

subjects pertaining to the Military; the taboo on the full discussion of the sensitive

subjects of the position of the Military, the political prisoners, religious problems

and the fate of the Chinese minority is another important limiting factor. But the

main factor seems to be the absence of the tradition and the absence of local or

roving reporters as ^ell as lack of skill in reporting broad spcial, economic and

political events and processes in a descriptive, explanatory or analytic manner,

The most avid and regular user of all available Indonesian mass-media today will

still know next to nothing about the standard of living, the state of the economy, of

public health, of the schools, literary life, and social organizations, of the mood,

the sentiments and the opinions of .the public in the different areas of the archipelago.

On all these points my elite sample is definitely badly informed. Whatever

is known is known -from personal experience—and not from the media.

It has been claimed that what is supposed to be the state of affairs in most
"less developed" countries is even more so in Indonesia; The limitations on the

formal spread of Information due to a limited network of media are supposed to- be

compensated for by an informal system of information chiefly by word of mouth. Now,

Indonesia is a society with a surprisingly large number of organizations, political.
 - 126 -

religious, women's, youth, scouts—in short, social and econoinic organizations of

many kinds. Each of the major political or religious-political groups was the

sponsor of a host of such organizations, a political party, its mass organizations

and the millions of families of their followers and sympathizers formed an aliran
(a "trend")—a major section of the population: an NU all an—the remnants of the

old Masjumi aliran, supervised'by Masjumi's soclo-cultural organization—Muhammadyah

which remained legal—a PNI aliran> a Christian aliran and until the Coup-attempt,
the large PKI aliran. The members of the media-using elite were supposedly acting

as a multiplier by handing down foreign and domestic news. Government plans and

polities as well as political opinion to the large public of the non-readers, non­
listeners and non-viewers through the channels of the dozens of aliran. organizations

affiliated to the political-religious group they themselves belonged to.

Even though the sample I have studied is too specialized and small to enable

one to challenge this assumption, I can report that my sample certainly does riot

act as such a multiplier of Information. First of all none seems to be a member

of a political party or of any of the mass urban organizations where they could act

as information and opinion conveying leaders. The only organizations they belong

to are elite organizations, either professional or social, such as Alumni organiza­

tions, faculty organizations, lawyers' organizations; the women's organization

affiliated to a Government Ministry; a tennis or other sports club. Some of these

have some regular information and discussion sessions and may play some role in the

formation of opinion of the elite members but rione acts as a channel of information to

a less well informed part of the public.

This does not mean that members of the sample, especially the academic ones,

do not play a role of social importance. On the contrary, the university professors

in my sample seem to further the development of the critical thinking of their own

students and even of wider student circles on social or economic issues; but these

Djakarta or Jogja students are in any case entrants to the elite. Some of the

academics among my full or partial interviewees also have a surprising amount of

familiarity and easy communication with Government and seem to have real influence,

especially on the policy of economic development, but this has nothing to do with the

spread of information.
 -127-

Two of the younger college teachers had recently completed two years of teach­

ing in a West Irian college whose students came from a tribal background and
certainly had, apart from this exposure, only little access to the world of foreign

and national political events and opinions. Theirs was the only case in my sample

of elite of the communication of information and opinions to people outside the

national elite and even these West Irian youngsters, who are just one step removed from
Isolated tribal life, had already been picked to become the future political and

administrative elite of this most under-developed region of Indonesia.

What is completely absent in my sample are organizational ties which would

bring the well-informed elite members into continuous contact with any non-elite

group. It is understandable that they do not communicate with the rural peasants,

or the urban manual workers but they do not even communicate with the urban lower

middle class, ^fy elite sample includes a large proportion of civil servants, and

as such they are not supposed under the New Order to engage in party political

activities. But even the members of the upper middle and upper classes who are not
civil servants, including the academics who are not bound by this restriction, would

nowadays not easily find a field of activity in an aliran.

It seems to me that the entire old aliran system has been gravely shaken and

that the lines of communication between the remaining groups of mass organizations

and the Intelligentsia must of necessity be tenuous. For many years there had been

four main aliran groups: Conservative Islam with its party, N.U., modernist Islam

with its party, Masjumi (after its ban Muhammadyah had continued to operate its

non-political organizational activities), the nationalist, mainly Javanese-syncretist,

aliran with PNI as its political party and the Marxist-secularist camp, with the

PKI as its party.

Since October 1965 the entire Communist aliran, the -political party and its

entire enormous network of specialized and labor union mass organizations, has been

wiped out.

The Nationalist aliran has undergone the severe shock of a split in the PNI,
the arrest of- many of its leaders and left-wing members, the complete ban on its

activities in some regions of the country. The party is not only still under a cloud
but it has also not yet developed a new and forward-looking program and certainly
 -128-

Is not attractive to today's well educated and ambitious person as a framework for

activities.

This is even less so with the conservative Moslem aliran and NU. The educated
have looked down on NU leaders for years as backward, uneducated, boorish and bbring.

Young intellectuals in their ranks have regularly rebelled.

Masjumi, which used to attract a good many well-educated people in the .past
has not been rehabilitated, and the new party, PMI, has been forbidden to choose the

old prestigious Masjumi leaders as their leaders. Therefore the fate of the entire

camp of modernist Islam is still hanging in the balance and thus at present

certainly is not likely to attract many elite members.

The second political party which attracted especially the intellectuals, used

to be the small Socialist Party, P.S.I., but this never formed an aliran, it never
had succeeded in organizing its own sector of mass organizations. This party has

now been officially banned for a decade and has not been rehabilitated. Nevertheless,

more often than not when one Indonesian describes the political tendency of a fellow-

educated Indonesian, he will describe him as P.S.I., or even P.S.I. of group a or

group These small political groups of an officially non-existent party seem

now to be the most important rallying points of intellectuals interested in public

affairs. During 1966-67 new organizational frameworks, the so-called Action Fronts,

came into being: the Students' Action Front, the High School Students' Action Front,
and the Action Front of the Intellectuals. The leadership for all these groups -came

from University campuses but they reached and Influenced a mass public not only in

Djakarta but also in provincial cities and towns.

Cracks in the most important of the 3 Action Fronts, Kami, appeared in autumn
1967 and the issue was a difficult and sensitive one, that of anti-Christian Incidents.

Provincial student groups with militant Moslem tendencies justified these incidents,

whereas the Djakarta liberal-minded center condemned them. Kami split and broke up
in 1968. At present it seems as if this post-Coup attempt of establishing a new

channel of communication from the educated elite to attract the urban masses has

faltered} it could not survive the achievement of the common negative goal, the

toppling of Sukarno and his "Old Order." The intellectuals have not succeeded in
developing a broad enough positive platform and perhaps they also have not been brave
ppp IP iPPpiiiiliiiPPi

-129-

enough to tackle some of the basic issues which affect strong vested interests such

as Moslem interests, military interests, etc.

With the old political parties and their aliran organizations either destroyed,

or unattractive, or weak, or in a state of uncertainty, and the new organizations, the

Action Fronts, breaking up, the educated elite seems to be temporarily isolated within

its own social circles with some of its members trying to Influence developments

through the back-rooms of power.