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Harry’s endless hope for a better Indonesia
Harry Bhaskara (Photo by Erlinawati Graham)It is a bromide among politicians urging exporters: Australians must study Indonesian to sell more to the hungry customers next door
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Harry Bhaskara (Photo by Erlinawati Graham)
It is a bromide among politicians urging exporters: Australians must study Indonesian to sell more to the hungry customers next door.
Exploring reveals diversity; tolerance will thrive and friendships flourish. This is fine to a point, though not the whole story for veteran Indonesian journalist and independent thinker Harry Bhaskara.
Harry reckons his former country also has to put in the hard yards, as Australians say. That includes the government news agency Antara distributing enticing stories about Indonesia written in English.
Then Aussies might learn there’s more to the republic than burning tires in Jakarta and motorbikes in Bali’s Kuta.
“If Indonesia can become a decent country, its relationship with Australia and the rest of the world will improve,” Harry said.
“Much of the onus lies with Indonesia itself […] By ‘decent’, I mean the nation should become a true democracy, uphold justice, eliminate the impunity protecting authority and make the bureaucracy transparent,”
“Investors won’t come if these issues aren’t solved. Malaysia and Singapore are well run. In the eyes of outsiders, Indonesia is a problematic country […] I don’t blame Australians — why should they bother if Indonesia is not doing well?”
Such comments make partisan politicians splutter about “sovereign rights”. Crowing that they will ignore outsiders’ opinions plays to the crowd but warps the intent: caring critics are not traitors damning their nation, only those rulers who put self ahead of state.
Harry’s views cannot be easily flicked aside. Although now an Australian citizen, he spent most of his working life with The Jakarta Post, starting just after the paper was launched in 1983.
In the dark days of dictator Soeharto’s New Order military junta, a free press was but a dream.
“The Army used to order us not to publish certain stories, like riots in remote areas. Useful alerts; we often didn’t know there was trouble.”
At press conferences Harry drew stares.
“I was too Chinese to be an Indonesian, but too Indonesian to be a Chinese,” he quipped. There were hurts, such as the government in 1967 forcing name changes.
Harry was born as Sie Siang Hoei in Makassar, South Sulawesi, a fifth generation of Chinese descent who only knew Indonesian. This was not good enough under Soeharto’s anti-communist/Chinese regime, thus entered “Harry Bhaskara Kontutodjeng”.
“Bhaskara is Sanskrit for torch. Kontutodjeng is a Makassar word for truth,” he explained, adding that a good translation is Harry True-man.
A fine name for a journalist.
Offsetting, though not negating domestic discrimination, was recognition abroad. He won visiting scholarships to the University of California and Murdoch University in Australia.
Harry was orphaned as a teen. Before his mother Cecilia Tanzil died, she urged him to continue his education. But the family had no money so he quit high school.
He worked in stores and workshops but his real calling was music. Through teaching the guitar he garnered enough for a place at the University of Indonesia as a mature age student.
He had already taught himself English and excelled. He was drawn to American literature and cultural critic Henry Louis Mencken.
“I was so impressed with the way he handled language and the clarity of his prose that I decided to become a journalist,” said Harry.
The respect stopped there. Mencken was also a racist antidemocrat, his admirer was the opposite. Writing well is not enough.
Good journalists need to be cursed by curiosity, showing sympathy for the weak while revealing wrongs. Harry’s work reveals he suffers from these bothersome qualities.
“We used to sneer at Malaysians because they didn’t fight for their freedom, so they had no independence,” he said.
“Now they’re upholding the law by putting former prime minister Najib Razak on trial. We never brought Soeharto to justice.”
Razak has been accused of looting US$4.5 billion from the country’s sovereign wealth fund. Transparency International has alleged that Soeharto, who died in 2008, embezzled up to $35 billion.
Harry, now a spry 70, covered stories across the archipelago, rising from reporter to managing editor before retiring in 2010 to Brisbane, where he has been sharpening perceptions of his motherland.
He is the Queensland correspondent for the prestigious national daily Kompas. His report on Australian Labor leader Bill Shorten conceding defeat and congratulating Liberal Scott Morrison on his May 17 election win ranked second-highest in the paper.
“Readers were surprised because Shorten accepted defeat before it was official,” Harry said.
“That’s another cultural difference — Australians don’t like bad losers.”
Harry and his wife Melanie easily blend with the wider Australian community and deplore Indonesians who import their cultural and religious differences.
Although friends joke that he has become an “Indonesian bule [foreigner]” because he does not drink coffee, admires rugby and rarely eats rice, Harry is not uncritical of his new home. He believes the government has “reached a stalemate” in trying to handle drugs, gambling and alcohol abuse. Empty churches also distress.
“I know Indonesia has potential,” said Harry, for a moment in his Happy Harry persona slipped then recovered.
“I have great hope for young people seeking to serve, and who want appointments based on merit. Much will depend on the character of the leader who succeeds Jokowi in five years,”
“If we have the right people at the top, then corruption can be conquered.”
