 | Narrowing Motion,Corruption Through Journalism
An experienced journalist, Arief is aggressively tackling the problem of corruption in Indonesia society through a combined strategy of investigative journalism.
The new idea
Arief believes that efforts to curb corruption in Indonesia have failed in large measure because the focus has always been on top government officials. Yet corruption permeates every aspek of Indonesia life. So, to limit corruption in Indonesia, he argues that the cooperative’s heat to the town union leader to the local government chairman to the country’s presiden. Because it is often the cooperative’s chief who later becomes local goverment chairman, Arief believes that it is paramount to curb corruption at lower levels.
Based on this belief, he has set up an altogether new type of news paper to report corruption at the community, regional and state government levels. To ensure that something is done about the corruption tribunal and files cases in court against offending officers. He is also forming alliances with existing citizen sector organizations both to accelerate the campaign against corruption and the check on the cases he has forwarded to the anti corruption tribunal and courts.
This ide is new in Indonesia, evidenced by its being the first time some one has developed a combined strategy of investigative journalism and civil action. Furthermore, Arief strategy of involving other civil society groups in the fight against corruption marks the first time citizen sector groups representative of different interests ( human rights, women, environment, youth and student ) have come together to fight corruption.
The problem
Corruption is the bane of Indonesia society. In the 1990s,( president time of Suharto in command ) corruption was mostly limited to goverment officials in hight places,today,it permeates every facet of life, from religious leaders to the lowest ranks in goverment. It was often assumed that Indonesia’s corruption resulted from long years of military rule,but it has become clear that both military and civilian goverments, with the same problem. Many would even argue that corruption under civilians is worse because of the many tiers of government that give many more people access to public fund. Most efforts to curb this problem have failed because of the rampant nature of the problem,insufficient political will to persecute erring officials,and lack of citizen pressure.
The media,especially the print media, have highlighted isolated instances of corruption in goverment,but because of the undue harassment many faced during the military era, the zeal to keep reporting corruption has largely ebbed. As a result, most reporters stay clear of controversial issues that will induce the wrath of the government. In addition, economic instability means that most media depend on the government for funding and advertisement, making objective reporting of the facts difficult.
The sitution has carried over to the new democratic goverment, and individuals who have challenged corrupt practices have been imprisoned, sending a clear indication to others that free speech entails many consequences in Indonesia society. Hence, most Indonesia news papers are full of goverment propaganda, even while it is obvious that the present goverment is corrupt and doing little to improve the socioeconomic situation of the majority of its citizens.
Citizen sector organizations have made headway as reformation against corruption, but many link corruption to military rule has made it hard to challenge the new democratic leaders with the same zeal, and many fear that doing so could give the millitary a reason to return to power, as it did in 1998. As a result, the media and human rights groups have reduced dramatically their roles as agents againts corruption. Nonetheless, even when citizen organizations and media report corruption, it is often about corruption in high places, with little or no mention of corruption at the grassroots level. Yet, as Arief see, it is grassroots corruption that feeds corruption at the high levels.
More critically, there is little or no link between the media and citizen organizations. Cases that are reported in the newspapers are hardly ever taken up by citizen groups, and cases being handled by these civil society group are given litlle prominence in the media. As a result, the average Indonesia believes that there is no point in
Having worked as an insvestigative journalist for years, Arief founded his own publication. "Tabloid Investigasi Kriminal ", in 1991 to report exclusively on corruption at every level of society. As a pilot, he decided to start with and concentrate on three sub province in middle jawa province,expanding later to cover news from more province
reporting corruption because litlle or nothing is done about it.
If this situation is not addressed, corruption will continue to thwart Indonesia progress and deny opportunities for citizens to reach their full potential.
The Strategy
Having worked as an insvestigative journalist for years, Arief founded his own publication. "Tabloid Investigation Kriminal ", in 1991 to report exclusively on corruption at every level of society. As a pilot, he decided to start with and concentrate on three sub province in middle java province,expanding later to cover news from more province
To get information on corruption, Lois has established a network of informants and journalists at every local government level where he works. The paper has made him many enemies in government,even under the democratic dispensation. Accordingly,he has devised an intricate security system for him self, his journalists, and the paper itself. For instance, to protect the identity of his journalists and informants, he encourages the use of aliases. Furthermore, the news paper is printed in six different locations to avoid having one “easy target” central office. The paper does have email address to contact staff. He plans to create a Web site for the paper, but Arief him self is constantly in hiding and can be reached only through a complex security arrangement.
Arief news paper is priced inexpensively to encourage wide readership and allow the poor to access news. This strategy makes financial sustainability a serious issue,but he is managing to overcome this challenge by applying for grants from trusted organizations and appealing to responsible individuals. He also enjoys a lot of good will in middle java province state where he is based, and people who identify with his project assume many of his cost. He often tells the story of how he hardly ever pays taxi fares in Semarang, because the taxi drivens always give him a free ride as soon as they recognize him.
Arief knows that reporting corruption is not enough, instead, it is only a first, although fundamental, step in the fight against corruption. To truly eliminate corruption, reports musst bring about legal reform.This realization started his critical strategy of writing petitions to the anticorruption tribuanal and suing malfeasant officials. At present, he has three petitions before the anti corruption tribuanal and many cases in court. To ensure that more time is dedicated to this strategy. Arief is setting up citizen sector organizations-now in the process of registration- to concentrate fully on legal and civil action against corrupt officials.
To complement the effort of this organization and his new paper and to spread his idea, he is also developing a broad-based coalition of citizen sector organizations that will focus on the followw-up side of his initiative. For instance, if corruption has been identified at the Ministry of women’s affair and a petition sent to the anti corruption tribunal, the women organizations in his coalition will pursue appropriate next steps. To spread his idea further, he is increasing the news paper’s circulation to more rural areas and planning to expand coverage beyond middle java province,
The Person
Arief came from polygamous family where there was little peace and harmony. His parents quarreled constantly, and Arief found himself taking the role early in life as the family mediator.Furthermore, the injustice he saw his mother face at the hands of his farther’s relatives made him hate oppression, and soon he became the defender of the oppressed among his peer groups, fighting for them against bullies in their midst.
His interest in fighting for the oppressed led him to study mass communications and journalism, he felt that the best way to protect the weak was to highlight the oppressions they faced. In his naivete,he felt that if the media highlighted oppression,the authorities would then do something about it.After graduation from the university, Arief joined a news paper in Indonesia.”Harian Ibu” as away to bring the plight of the oppressed to the fore. Despite his thorough investigations and reporting, nothing was being done about the oppressions and reporting,nothing was being done about the oppression he highlighted. He soon realized that this was because goverment was the main oppressor and government officials were the greatest beneficiaries of the oppression, and they were in no hurry to correct the situation. He then decided to become an investigative journalist focusing mainly on corruption. He found “Harian Aksi” uncooperative in terms of publishing articles critical of the government. After working there for a year,he moved to another paper. “Harian Terbit”, and met the same treatment.In 1995 he joined “Tabloid Kriminal “and found a group that was willing to challenge the goverment. He worked there for five years, reporting corrupt practices under the military. His reporting brought him in constant conflict with the then-military government, and he went in and out of detention.
During this period, he decided to study law to arm himself with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect himself from the incessant harassment by the government. He soon realized,however,that while he and others were focusing on corruption in high places, corruption was endemic to the whole system. He determined that to remove coruption in Indonesia, the paper would have to widen its scope to capture the corruption happening at the lower levels.”Harian Ibu”, and Harian Terbit” was not interested and preferred to concentrate on corruption at the federal level. At this point he decided to publish his own paper to concentrate fully on corruption at all levels.
Thank,
Arief Djoe Lelana |  |
