End of an era

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 01/26/2008 2:28 AM  |  Opinion

The omission of the Ministry of Information from President Abdurrahman Wahid's National Unity Cabinet, slated to be sworn in on Friday, befits Indonesia's nascent break from its autocratic past.

The ministry was a meritorious institution during the early years of independence, when the country was striving to lay a solid foundation on which to build a unified nation from hundreds of ethnic communities culturally, socially and politically separated by geography and more than three centuries of foreign colonization. The Ministry of Information, however, degenerated over the course of its existence into a tool of repression.

Early in its existence, the ministry was effective in ensuring vital information was disseminated swiftly to every region of the sprawling archipelago. In its later years, the institution was used to ensure only information which benefited the government and positively portrayed those in power and their close associates was broadcast.

So deleterious was the ministry during president Sukarno's Guided Democracy from 1959 to 1967 and president Soeharto's Pancasila Democracy from 1967 to 1998, the information ministry became one of the institutions most feared by journalists and the media.

Scores of newspapers and magazines were closed and hundreds of journalists and others employed in the media lost their jobs during these periods for not toeing the official government line. The publication of reports or articles the authorities deemed disruptive, seditious or subversive, and thus ""harmful to the nation"", was a virtual death sentence for media. A system of mandatory licensing further added to the ministry's power and opened opportunities for corruption, collusion and nepotism.

Taking its past abuses into account, one is justified in saying the information ministry contributed to and is therefore partly responsible forcreating the distortions which have plagued this country since Sukarno's Guided Democracy. Given its past, it was no surprise President Wahid's decision to omit the information ministry from his Cabinet was generally welcomed by the media.

Moreover, technological developments have made many of the ministry's functions either ineffectual or obsolete.

On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that many of the information ministry's tasks fulfilled genuine needs which cannot simply be abandoned. In many remote areas of the country, for example, few can afford newspapers, radios or televisions.

For these people, it remains the government's duty to fill this information void. As for the employees of the Ministry of Information, new jobs must be found for them as quickly as possible. After all, it is the system, not the employees, which should be faulted for the ministry's past failings.

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