`Media still lacks subtlety in show of partiality'

Andra Wisnu ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 07/06/2009 1:09 PM  |  National

There was a rumor that the wife of Boediono , the vice presidential candidate paired with incumbent presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, might be catholic. This came up after the issue arose that the wives of President Yudhoyono and Boediono did not wear headscarves.

And then there was the remark made by a campaign team worker of presidential candidate Yudhoyono, current government spokesman Andi Malarangeng, quoted as saying that he thought people from Sulawesi were not yet fit to lead the country, prompting a sharp rebuke from supporters of presidential candidate Jusuf Kalla, the only non-Javanese candidate in the race.

Smear campaigns are not new to Indonesia's budding democracy, but with religious and ethnic issues being put on the stage by the media, the public are asking whether the smearing is going too far.

The answer? Maybe, experts said, adding that smear campaigns are inevitable in any democracy. The media will be seeing even worse remarks in the next election in 2014," said Effendi Gazali, an expert of the University of Indonesia most well known for his appearances in the MetroTV show of his production, "Republik Mimpi".

From June 1 to June 22, out of 319 articles containing negative campaign messages, about 163 articles were attacks on the Yudhoyono-Boediono pair, though the pair also made attacks negative attacks on other candidates in 128 other articles, according to research conducted by public relations company Strategy PR.

The Wiranto-Kalla pair made negative remarks in 89 articles, mostly against Boediono and were on the receiving end themselves of 89 negative articles, the research noted.

Meanwhile, the Megawati-Prabowo pair addressed negative issues in 78 articles and were on the receiving end of negative comments in 67 articles and press comments. A further 26 negative articles were aimed at Yudhoyono by parties that were possibly connected to the other candidate pairs.

Effendi said the Indonesian media should take the example of the media in the United States which he claimed tended to side with certain policies rather than parties or persons.

Sinansari Ecip, Deputy Chief of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), agreed that newspaper were allowed to be partisan but rejected the idea that television stations might also be partisan.

"Newspapers are made from papers, which people buy and sell and can fill with whatever they want. Television and radios however use frequencies, which are owned by everyone, so no one should be allowed to use that to give political messages," he said.

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