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Indonesia's radio
revolution
By Kalinga Seneviratne
JAKARTA - The hundreds of community-owned radio
stations beaming local music and people's voices across
the huge Indonesian archipelago today reflect a sea
change from the Suharto years, when a handful of the
former president's business cronies dominated the local
media.
Today, five years after Suharto's ouster
from power, people such as Ali Pangestu, coordinator of
the Indonesian Community Radio Network, say that they
are enjoying the dividends that democratic change is
bringing to a media landscape where all newspapers were
owned by Suharto associates and all radio and television
were in government hands.
"It's a relief" to be
able to run a radio station without the fear of it being
closed down by the government since a new broadcasting
law was passed last November, Ali Pangestu, coordinator
of the Indonesian Community Radio Network, said in an
interview.
The new broadcasting law, for the
first time, contains provisions for the establishment of
community-based broadcasting. By next month the
government is expected to announced a multi-party
national communications commission to begin the task of
issuing community broadcasting licenses.
But
dozens of impatient community radio enthusiasts are on
the air already - some for as long as two years.
Government authorities have been turning a blind eye to
the broadcast proliferation as long as national security
is not affected.
Among the active broadcast
"pirates" are the radio station recently started for
children of a scavenger community just outside Jakarta,
one for a fishing community north of Jakarta, for
riverbank communities in Jogjakarta, and for villagers
on the slopes of Mount Merapi in Central Java.
Some, such as Radio Suara Persaudaraan Matraman
(RSPM), have set themselves a challenging agenda. RSPM
has been dubbed the "peace music station" for its
innovative model of using local dangdut music -
local renditions of popular Indian music - to bring
peace to feuding communities in East Jakarta.
M
Satiri, the radio technician who started the station,
did so in an attempt to put an end to the conflict
between two squatter neighborhoods in the Matraman
district. "There has been conflict here since 1971,"
Satiri said in an interview. "Nothing has worked to
bring peace. The governor then advised us to do positive
things."
So Satiri decided to set up a studio at
home, spent Rp15 million (about US$1,800) of his own
money, drafted his wife and teenage daughter in as disc
jockeys, and spent another Rp7 million to construct a
relay tower on his roof.
That was three years
ago and Satiri quickly saw his effort pay off - the
youth of the two communities began visiting the radio
station to request songs, mainly their favorite
dangdut hits. Now his studio is a meeting place
for people from both communities, who find they can
mingle without rancor with their former enemies.
"To get the attention of people in the area, I
distributed leaflets asking them to request songs on
air," Satiri explained. Now he charges Rp1,000 (12 US
cents) for each request he broadcasts. This helps keep
his radio station afloat, and Satiri has trained 13
local youth to be volunteer disc jockeys.
RSPM
has been given a restricted license under local
government laws and Satiri says he gets some funds from
local authorities to help keep the community peaceful.
But the "peace music station" may not have stayed on air
without broader intervention in 2001 and 2002 by
activists.
At the time, the Indonesian
government was considering dropping the community radio
article on grounds of national security, and only
sustained lobbying by civil-society groups, including
the Tifa Foundation, prevented that.
Although
pointing out that the new laws are vague on the
definition of community radio - they are described as
"owned, controlled by the community" - she said that
"community radio will allow people in Indonesia to have
their own voice".
Most local newspapers are
owned by just two giant publishing companies: Kompas and
Jawa Pos.
Since the fall of the Suharto
government in 1998, commercial private broadcasting has
expanded rapidly and saturated the frequencies,
especially in the cities. Community radio operators
instead select a frequency they find free and broadcast
on it, using homemade low-powered transmitters and cheap
broadcasting equipment, without applying for government
permission.
Akuat Supriyanto, external relations
coordinator of the Alliance of Independent Journalists
(AIJ), believes that community radio activists should
not accept any form of licensing regime from the
government and must broadcast political problems at the
local level. "In rural areas, there is no control of
government agencies and community radio is a good medium
to exercise these checks and balances," said Supriyanto.
Yet he sees an absence of strong political
conviction. "The movement to build community radio is
not based on political awareness to protest against
regulation of broadcast media in Indonesia," he noted.
AIJ is helping refine the new communication
space too. It recently organized a workshop at radio
stations for local journalists on reporting on conflict
resolution. Satiri was held up as an example - "not how
to report conflict," said Supriyanto, "but as a
brilliant idea of how to resolve conflict using radio".
"They used the radio as a forum for community
leaders to explain the history of the conflict," he
added. "Thus, our reporters got a perspective on what
the conflict is, and how to mediate and stop it."
There is still a measure of official distrust
about communities taking to the airwaves. Garin Nugroho,
filmmaker and community media activist, explained:
"Government is afraid that community media could become
a tool for disunity. But if civil society develops in
the periphery, Indonesia will be stronger.
"Local areas need their information and their
entertainment, which gives them an identity," he added.
"National media can give a window to local media and
vice versa. This form of multicultural broadcasting is
our vision of the future."
(Inter Press
Service)
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