Suspending his move to report Tempo to the police, chief welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie on Friday filed a libel complaint against the magazine with the Press Council, saying the journal had attempted to “assassinate” his character.
In his complaint to the council, Aburizal said Tempo had damaged his reputation by publishing an investigative report about the plight of Bakrie group evidenced by the plummeting shares of its companies in its Nov. 17 to 23 edition.
“I decided to come to the Press Council to complain and seek advice on this matter,” the coordinating minister for people’s welfare said after meeting with council members.
Aburizal said he had actually had the right to immediately report the magazine to the police, but added that he had decided to use the press law first to settle the defamation case, following suggestions from his friends and press experts.
In his complaint, the senior minister demanded Tempo apologize for publishing the article, which he claimed was a “character assassination”.
According to Aburizal, the magazine’s cover for that edition had also been offensive as it had the number 666 prominently marked on top of a picture of him.
The number is typically used to symbolize the devil, he said.
“Tempo must make corrections to the article and the cover of the magazine,” said Aburizal, one of the country’s wealthiest individuals and an influential Golkar Party politician.
“Basically, I assume there’s actual malice (on the part of the magazine) in using the number on the cover,” he said.
The magazine, he added, should publish his reply to the article in a space the same size as that used for the critical report.
The report described Aburizal as one of the biggest financiers of the 2004 presidential campaign of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla.
Quoting unnamed sources, the article claimed Aburizal’s huge contributions to the eventually successful campaign earned him the post of coordinating minister for the economy.
Aburizal retained his place in the Cabinet, later being named coordinating minister for the people’s welfare, even after a considerable Cabinet shakeup in which the President dismissed a number of ministers for poor performance, it added.
“If (Tempo) failed to meet my request, I would file a lawsuit against it,” Aburizal warned.
Press Council chairman Ichlasul Amal said he would invite both disputing parties to hold mediation talks.
Should the mediation fail to settle the case, the council would issue a set of sanctions and recommendations, he added.
Chief editor of Tempo Toriq Hadad said the council had invited the magazine to hear its explanation on Dec. 2.
“Let the Press Council solve this dispute. We’re sure the council will examine our explanation thoroughly,” he said.
Toriq denied having wished to insult Aburizal in the report. “It’s not Tempo’s style to play around and degrade anyone through our writing.”
Responding to Aburizal’s claim that Tempo’s reporter had not made enough effort to try to contact Aburizal for the article, Toriq said there was a lack of access to the minister.
“Our reporter tried their best to interview Aburizal for a complete response, but the people around him made it all difficult.”
Toriq said the magazine’s cover had not only displayed the number 666, but also other similar numbers, including 111, 777 and 888.
“The numbers were not written as numbers, but instead, (the image) was constructed of numbers,” he said, referring to the fact that the image of Aburizal on the cover had been drawn as a mosaic of numbers.
“From so many numbers, why has the number 666 become such an issue?”
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