“Journalism is a calling,” remarked Jakob Oetama, senior journalist and co-founder of Kompas, the nation’s most circulated newspaper.

The force of this calling, he added, was the magnet which drew the young to the profession and kept the older adherents at their desks– including Sabam Siagian, The Jakarta Post’s veteran journalist who remains active in the art of reporting as he approaches the age of 80.

Sabam’s career at the Post stretches back to 1983 when he took on the job of chief editor during the newspaper’s nascence. He left the position in 1991 to assume his new role as the Indonesian ambassador to Australia, a post he served in for four years.

He has since then resumed his career at the newspaper where he has risen to the rank of director.

“He may be turning 80 years old, but his disposition is that of a man in his 60s,” August Parengkuan, a senior journalist at Kompas, said of his friend whom he has known since the early 1970s.

“He cannot remain idle,” he said. “He is currently active as an advisor to the Indonesian Journalists Association [PWI] and still zips across the country to train other journalists,” he added.

With classical symphonies — a genre favored also by Sabam — lilting from a stereo in his office where he spoke about his friend, August pointed out that there is a lot that one can learn from Sabam. Other contemporaries agree on this point.

“What struck me the most was his aplomb, and also his fluency in English as well as his forthrightness. You see, as a Javanese, I am more of the sungkan [hesitant out of respect] type,” Jakob said of his first impression of Sabam.

Jakob and Sabam met each other when Sabam was still at Sinar Harapan, an afternoon daily which Sabam owned and of which he was editor before his time at the Post.

The two became better acquainted once Sabam moved to the Post, given that both PT Sinar Kasih, the publishing company of Sinar Harapan, and PT Kompas Gramedia, the publishing company of Kompas, owned shares in PT Bina Media Tenggara, the publisher of the Post.

Fikri Jufri, Tempo senior journalist and contemporary of Sabam, pointed out that this proficiency in English, on top of his lobbying prowess, were the traits that eased Sabam into diplomatic circles and his eventual appointment as ambassador.

“I wanted him there [in Australia] because we, at that time, needed someone who could build upon and rejuvenate the Indonesia-Australia relationship, which was at a low point” Fikri, who is also a member of the Post’s editorial advisory board, recounted.

Sabam stepped into his position as ambassador during a time when Indonesia and Australia were embroiled in issues related to East Timor, now known as Timor Leste.

In 1991, a group of demonstrators held a rally at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, to mark the death of an activist who had been gunned down by Indonesian armed forces. The rally turned ugly when soldiers descended on the crowd and opened fire, killing approximately 270 people, including an Australian-based New Zealand student and rights activist.

“He was able to forge a close friendship with Paul Keating, who was then Australian prime minister, and through this friendship, he helped improve the ties between both countries,” August recounted, adding that Sabam gave tips to Keating on facing then president Soeharto.

However, as a comrade in reporting from the field, Fikri said that Sabam could be “a bugger”. Sabam and Fikri would at times, cover OPEC meetings together in Vienna, Geneva and Caracas.

“There was one time when we were at this party and I saw him talking to a foreigner. As I approached, he whispered to the foreigner to be careful with what he said because a journalist was nearby,” he recounted with a chuckle.

August added that this was the typical style of Sabam’s jokes.

“That’s how he actually helps fellow journalists in the presence of officials. He would be joking about us but in between the jokes, he would be dropping hints to the journalist on why the press was important,” he pointed out.

“However, Sabam has expressed his concern about codes of ethics and the professionalism of journalists in presenting balanced news,” he said, adding that he, Sabam and a few other contemporaries would at times, meet up and have casual discourses about the latest news over a bottle of wine.

Jakob said that one way the new generation of journalists could grow to fill the shoes of those who had been in the profession much longer was through “strong reflection”.

“A journalists’ reflective ability lies in the capacity to not just present the facts, but also lay out the context, or background, in which those facts exist,” he said.

“This is how a journalist truly demonstrates mastery of an issue.”

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