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DH Assegaff: Editor, educator, envoy
(JP/Ricky Yudhistira)How would you characterize president Soehartoâs 32-year rule from 1966 to 1998? Divide it into four eight-year cycles
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(JP/Ricky Yudhistira) (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
(JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
How would you characterize president Soeharto's 32-year rule from 1966 to 1998? Divide it into four eight-year cycles. This is the assessment of veteran journalist Djafar Husin Assegaff in Zaman Keemasan Soeharto: Tajuk Rencana (Soeharto's Golden Age: Editorials) from The Surabaya Post, 1989-1993, launched one month after he died on June 12 at the age of 80.
According to Assegaff, the first eight years of Soeharto's rule comprised a consolidation of power after the ouster of Sukarno, the second was the planned development phase and the third was a period of enjoying the fruits of development. The fourth eight-year cycle, however, saw the unraveling of Soeharto's power as evinced by the rise of a well-off middle class.
The 414-page volume is an anthology of 225 editorials that Assegaff wrote for the Surabaya Post. After the death of the paper's founder, Abdoel Azis, his wife ' chief editor Toety ' invited Assegaff to write a guest editorial on national issues twice a week, which he did from March 1989 until August 1993, when Soeharto named him ambassador to Vietnam.
The four years' of editorials in the anthology cover the end of Soeharto's third cycle, which Assegaff unabashedly called a golden age. Those years might be thought of as Assegaff's golden years, too, with his diplomatic posting considered a crowning achievement.
Born in Lampung on Dec. 12, 1932, Djafar Husin Assegaff was a man in full, working as an editor, educator, diplomat and politician.
As a journalist, Assegaff was managing editor of the crusading Indonesia Raya daily; chief editor of the Suara Karya, the then-paper of the Golkar Party; deputy managing director of the state-funded Antara news agency; chief editor of the Warta Ekonomi business weekly magazine; and chief editor of Media Indonesia, politician Surya Paloh's paper.
As an educator, Assegaff taught classes on journalism in Indonesia and the history of mass media at the University of Indonesia, where he chaired the journalism department. His book Reader on the History of the Mass Media was required reading. His fervor to enhance professionalism in the newsroom led him to co-found the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute (LPDS) in 1988. He was institute's first director until he left for Hanoi.
In politics, Assegaff joined the NasDem Party as chair of the fledgling party's patron board. The party was founded by media magnate Surya Paloh as his vehicle for running for president in 2014. 'I was asked by Pak Surya to shepherd the spirit of NasDem's younger members. In reality, it is these younger members who are shepherding me to keep my spirit alive', Assegaff said.
In Soeharto's Golden Age. Assegaff's editorials record the achievements of the man as president and as an actor on the world stage. Assegaff noted that on Sept. 24, 1992, Soeharto was the first world leader to address the 47th United Nations general assembly not only as Indonesia's head of state, but also as chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Indonesia hosted the 10th NAM summit in Jakarta earlier that year. 'President Soeharto carries the voice of 108 member states of the NAM that is calling for changes and democratization of the United Nations,' Assegaff wrote.
While Assegaff's editorials clearly supported Soeharto's policies and positions, when the issue was press freedom, however, his voice for unfettered journalism rang out clearly.
In 1992, for example, provincial officials in South Sumatra stepped in the newsroom of the Palembang-based Sriwijaya Post to review and approve the daily paper's content. Assegaff condemned the act.
'Journalists must reject the entry of public information officers who check on news copy. Firmness in defending rights pertaining to press freedom must be upheld by journalists,' Assegaff declared in an editorial dated June 1, 1992 titled: 'The national press may not be censored.'
Defending press freedom also meant protecting his frontline reporters. At the book's launch in Jakarta, ANTV chief editor Uni Lubis recalled how Assegaff stood up for her when she worked for him at Warta Ekonomi after graduating from college in the early 1990s.
Uni described her interview with then finance minister J.B. Sumarlin for a story on a power plant at the Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta that involved businesswoman Hartati Murdaya. Sumarlin, who was connected to the project, was angry when Uni detailed his relationship with Hartati and summoned the journalist to speak with him. Uni reported this to Assegaff, who then accompanied his reporter to the minister's office. Assegaff then stood in front of Sumarlin, angrily arguing that Sumarlin had no strong basis to protest the article.
Assegaff is survived by the hundreds of journalists that he trained and mentored, including Uni and Imelda Bachtiar, the editor of Soeharto's Golden Era.
While Imelda did a commendable job in assembling Assegaff's editorials into 14 different thematic chapters ranging from the New Order legislature to the ethos of national development, publication dates listed separately in an index in the back of the book.
Despite this inconvenience, Soeharto's Golden Age offers the distinct voice of a multitalented Indonesian journalist.
Zaman Keemasan Soeharto - Tajuk Rencana Harian, Surabaya Post 1989-1993
By DH Assegaff
Edited by Imelda Bachtiar
Published by Kompas, Rp. 90,000
