Indonesian Press Operating in a Climate of Fear : Publishing: Crackdown continues as the country prepares to host an economic summit.

The Indonesian press corps is still reeling from the government’s abrupt decision in June to shut down three publications that had been testing the limits of President Suharto’s stated policy of “openness.”

The clampdown has led to a new era of fear and caution as editors running publications that have thus far escaped government sanctions warn their reporters to lie low.

Among the silenced journals is the influential newsweekly TEMPO, considered required reading among the nation’s movers and shakers. The magazine remains in limbo as a tense battle for control wages behind closed doors. Some former employees accuse the government of moving against TEMPO to help a powerful ally of Suharto gain control.

“It’s the ultimate corporate raid, Indonesian-style,” says former TEMPO chief editor Goenawan Mohamed. “You use government power to take over the business.”

Before its license was revoked, the magazine, founded 23 years ago, was flourishing. It was favored by advertisers eager to reach the swelling ranks of middle- and upper-class consumers in this developing nation, taking in $20.85 million in revenue last year and posting an annual growth rate of 15%. Circulation had reached 198,000. The magazine, unlike media of many Third World nations, routinely dispatched reporters to all corners of the globe and also maintained correspondents in Washington, Melbourne, Tokyo, New Delhi and other capitals.

The government did not spell out the reasons for closing TEMPO; it only cited a general need to safeguard national security. However, the decision came after Suharto delivered an angry speech criticizing TEMPO’s reports on a controversial purchase of used ships from the former East German navy. The deal was supervised by the president’s protege and close adviser, Minister for Research and Technology B.J. Habibie. Habibie, for his part, has insisted privately that he only wished to bring TEMPO to court, not shut it down.

Some observers believe that the government action was more the result of long-accumulating anxiety over perceived links between some TEMPO staffers and former Defense Minister Benny Moerdani, seen as a political threat to Suharto. With the president’s sixth five-year term ending in 1998, jitters over succession are mounting.

The two other banned publications--a political tabloid called Detik and the newsweekly Editor--were accused of inflaming conflicts among the national leadership.

Three government ministers have delivered public promises that a new license, known as a SIUPP, will be granted to TEMPO. Yet TEMPO journalists worry that it will come with strings attached as the Suharto government reasserts its control over the press in an attempt to minimize dissent.

Reports have surfaced that the government will only revive the magazine under the ownership of Bob Hasan, a close Suharto associate and chairman of APKINDO, the powerful Indonesian plywood association. The timber magnate has publicly denied that he has entered into any negotiations, but some TEMPO staffers say they have already received feelers from Hasan’s camp.

At an Aug. 10 stockholders’ meeting, TEMPO employees voted to apply for a new license independent of any new investor. In the context of Indonesian politics, this is hardly equivalent to a poison pill. “We suspect that the chances of getting a new SIUPP are no more than 5%,” says Bambang Bujono, newly elected by his colleagues as the chief editor of a revived magazine. “But we still have to try. This is better than not trying at all.”

Consistent with Indonesia’s press law, employees own 20% of the shares in the holding company that owns TEMPO, a company that counts other lucrative assets such as an East Java daily newspaper, a publishing house, and various parcels of real estate. These shares are estimated to be worth at least $2 million, enough to get the magazine back on its feet.

Whether or not the new license is granted, a bitter Mohamed plans to file suit against the government this month. An independent journalists’ alliance has been formed to challenge the supremacy of the existing journalists union, which is controlled by the ruling party, Colkar.

The street protests of June gave way in July and August to poetry readings, artistic “happenings,” public discussions and strategy sessions organized by a determined contingent of artists, activists, intellectuals and journalists. Photocopied pamphlets, the Indonesian version of Russian samizdat texts, are spreading throughout the archipelago.

Eros Djarot, former executive editor of Detik, has thrown his energies into recording an album of songs celebrating freedom, human rights and democracy. “We just want to prove that no one can stop our creativity,” he says.

Such efforts do not represent a significant challenge to the Suharto government. Yet they do cast a shadow over Indonesia’s image just as the world’s fourth most-populous nation prepares for a rare turn in the limelight.

Jakarta will play host in November to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, spearheaded by President Clinton. The summit is expected to draw about 3,000 journalists as well as foreign government leaders and officials.

A continued press crackdown is likely to draw further criticism of Indonesia--already condemned by the United States and other nations for repression in East Timor, which Indonesia annexed in 1975. The U.S. Congress has banned the sale of small weapons, light arms and crowd control equipment to Indonesia.

In a meeting with Suharto earlier this month, South African President Nelson Mandela called for new discussions on the East Timor question.

Banned Weekly

Indonesia’s weekly news magazine Tempo had made impressive circulation gains before it was banned by the government. Circulation, in thousands: ‘93: 168,000 Source: Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory