Bookmark: Getting beyond the facts

JP/P.J. LEO

One headline in Jakarta's Sinar Harapan evening newspaper in late March 1981 could have read "Two hijackers captured after commando storm" instead, all news stories about the violent ending of the Garuda hijacking at Bangkok's Don Muang airport that day reported all five hijackers were killed when troops from Indonesia's special forces stormed the plane.

Sinar Harapan journalist Panda Nababan, who went to Bangkok to witness the commando raid and flew with the rescued passengers to Jakarta, wrote that two hijackers were captured, based on a press conference by a military intelligence officer. But the military later changed this version, and claimed that all five hijackers were killed.

Gen. Benny Murdani, not a person to mess around with in those days, had roughed up Panda on his arrival in Jakarta, and then specifically told him to go along with the final military version. Panda defied the order and wrote what he felt was the truth. But back in the office, his editors decided to go along with the military version, clearly under pressure from the authorities.

"Sometimes later, I learned that Abdullah and Wendy, after all the information was extracted from them, were executed at a secret location," wrote Panda about the fate of the two surviving hijackers in Jurnalisme Investigatif - Menembus Fakta (Investigative Journalism - Beyond the Facts).

Now a politician for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Panda has decided to share in this book his experience as an investigative journalist, a tough profession during the Soeharto dictatorship, where censorship was the norm, and jail or physical abuse awaited editors and journalists who were defiant.

Some people may find it hard to believe today that investigative reporting was very much part of the Indonesian press tradition throughout the Soeharto years, between 1966 and 1998, probably much more so than today when freedom of the press is already guaranteed and access to public information is much more readily available.

The 1960s and 1970s were the years when journalism as a profession rose in stature thanks to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein whose investigative work for The Washington Post led to the Watergate scandal and the eventual downfall of US president Richard Nixon.

Beyond the Facts is very much in that same spirit, except that Panda, like other Indonesian journalists of his genre at the time, faced much more physical challenges than Woodward and Bernstein ever did. At times Panda had to take the brunt of the wrath from the powers that be; other times, it was his newspaper Sinar Harapan that had to be closed down by the authorities, because of his work.

Not all of Panda's investigative reporting ended up being spiked by his editors or publishers like his account of the 1981 Garuda hijacking. Many of them made it into print, and even led to changes in government policy and actions.

There was his account of the physical intimidation and harassment by the authorities against villagers in Losarang in West Java ahead of the 1971 general election, the first under Soeharto. Panda stayed in the village long enough to come out with a thorough account of the abuses that villagers suffered.

It was largely thanks to his strong lobbying that Sinar Harapan was able to come up with a story about Soeharto's budget plans in late 1972 before it was presented to the House of Representatives. But it was a heavy price to pay. The paper was closed down for 10 days as a result, and Panda and his editor Aristides Katopo were investigated by the military. Neither person disclosed the sources of their story but Tides lost his editorship at the newspaper as a condition for the newspaper returning to the street.

Panda worked in a "special team" in Sinar Harapan made up of investigative reporters led by Tides. Other issues he related to in the book include the Jan. 15, 1974 students riot in Jakarta, corruption and smuggling in Tanjung Priok port and in Halim Perdanakusuma airport, the sinking of the Tampomas passenger liner, the smuggling of luxury cars by Robby Tjahjadi and how he enjoyed the backing of powerful figures in the government, and the massive corruption at Bulog, the state logistics agency.

If todays' journalists get sued for intruding too much into the affairs of public and powerful figures, in Soeharto days, journalists were beaten up, intimidated and sent to jail. For Panda, it was all of the above. He considered them occupational hazards that came with the job. In those days, there were no professional organizations that would come to your rescue if you ever got into trouble. You were practically on your own. The Association of Indonesian Journalists (PWI) was too much co-opted into the system to be of any help.

Support and commitment from his editors and publishers were absolutely crucial for any investigative journalist. Panda recognized he would not have been able to do what he did without them, although he did not always get what he wanted, as the Garuda hijacking episode showed.

Their support did not stop only with their moral commitment, but also translated into the amount of time, money and resources allocated to get the job done. In those days, it was investigative reporting that made Sinar Harapan then one of the leading newspapers in the country. It made good business sense.

But it was the individual reporters in the team that made the real difference. Panda's own upbringing - he was street smart in his younger days - it made it seem as if he was born to the job.

He had been involved in a gang fight back in North Sumatra that landed him in a police cell. He was again arrested during the political turmoil in 1966, when he was a student at Bung Karno University in Jakarta and Soeharto and his military were taking power and rounding up everyone suspected of left-leaning ideologies.

Panda also confessed to stealing, cheating, lying and also impersonating - just about every vice you can think of except murder - to get what he needed in his job as an investigative reporter.

There was the time when he stole a letter from his own friend Fanny Habibie, the director general for sea transportation, intended for President Soeharto to explain about the Tampomas ship tragedy.

Sinar Harapan had a scoop on the Garuda hijacking in 1981 because Panda did an impersonation of a senior military officer on the phone to get people at Halim airport control tower to confirm the hijacking and to give him all the details, on deadline.

Between friendship and even ethics on the one hand, and public interest, Panda rightly opted for the latter.

Serving the public was the spirit that he kept in mind as he doggedly pursued his job as an investigative journalist. To him, this end almost justified any means.

Beyond the Facts makes for an interesting eye-opener about some of the darker aspects of the Soeharto regime, viewed through the lens of a critical journalist. It is also essential reading for any aspiring journalist on the question of what the true objectives of the profession should be. You don't just get the facts, you try to get beyond them. And that is not impossible even under the most difficult circumstances.

Menembus Fakta, Otobiografi 30 Tahun Seorang Wartawan
(Beyond the Facts, an Autobiography of 30 years as a Journalist)

Panda Nababan
Q Communications, Jakarta
304 pages
2009