Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

416 SESSION VI
Some say that the Kadaulatan Rakyat is an icon of
Yogyakarta. The news reports of Kadaulatan Rakyat
during the Suharto Regime were like other media that
presented news according to the information given by
the Government in order to survive. In the times of
reformasi, there is competition in the reporting of local
news in Yogyakarta, a large, important city, and all major
newspapers like Kompas and Java Pos have established
offices in Yogyakarta in order to search for information
in Central Java. The news agency of Java Pos is Radar
Yogya and is printed as a supplement of the Java Pos to
present local news from Yogyakarta and Central Java. It
can be said that the mainstream newspapers’ thrust into
the local newspapers’ market forced Kadaulatan Rakyat
to adapt itself in order to catch up with the situation.
Five years ago, it did research in order to improve the
quality of the newspaper and set up a new one named
Merapi in 2003 to capture the groups who like to read
about sex, crime, and gossip. It moved the crime, sex
and gossip sections from Kadaulatan Rakyat to Merapi
and added some qualitative content such as education,
tourism, and culture to the Kadaulatan Rakyat. Now,
the newspaper circulates 100,000 copies daily in Central
Java.
Kadaulatan Rakyat has reported news according to the
information provided by the Government since the
Suharto Regime. The owner has political connections
to the Sultan of Yogyakarta, which makes the
Kadaulatan Rakyat a conservative newspaper and not a
newspaper that criticizes and checks the local or central
governments. Its customary readers, who are older than
40, also love this role of the Kadaulatan Rakyat dearly.
Ronny Sugiantor, the managing editor of Kadaulatan
Rakyat, said
“Sometime when we presented news that opposed or
criticized the Government, our readers always blamed us,
they like us to do as we used to do, our old readers don’t
want us to change.”
As Amalinda Savirani said in her research on The New
Local Strongmen in the Indonesia Decentralization : The
case of Bantal District, Yogyakarta about the relationship
between the owner of Kadaulatan Rakyat and the Sultan
of Yogyakarta :
“Idham Samawi is the Bupati of Bantul (1999-2004) and
was re-elected for the next tenure in the local direct election
(Pilada Langsung) for the bupati-ship from 2005-2010.
He came from a family with a strong entrepreneurial
background. His family owned the oldest newspaper that
circulates in Central Java and Yogyakarta province. His
entrepreneurial background has colored the achievements of
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
Bantul District. The local revenue has increased more than
300% since he assumed power. He is good in lobbying, a
type of skill that is in need.
“His position in the media business of the Kadaulatan
Rakyat group brought him and his family closer
to the Sultan of Yogyakarta than any other local
businessman. In this respect, his emergence as a new elite
is merely a logical consequence of his own background
as a well-known businessman in the Yogyakarta area.”
Pikiran Rakyat Group
This Group runs an old newspaper of West Java, set
up in Bandung in 1966. It is the top newspaper in
local West Java, selling 150,000 copies daily while the
population of West Java is 40 million. It has more than
150 reporters and correspondents and has a news agency
and advertising section in Jakarta. It is a newspaper that
has more than 60% advertising in Central Jakarta. The
Pikiran Rakyat Group has Pikiran Rakyat as its main
newspaper. It has a local radio station—the Mustika
FM - Radio—set up in Bandung. The Pikiran Rakyat
Group has a policy to expand the local media. In 1998,
it bought one of the old newspapers of Bandung—
the Galamedia—and founded local newspapers in
Tasikmalaya City, Cirebon City, Bogor City and
Bantan City.
During the Suharto Regime, the Pikiran Rakyat was one
that strictly followed the rules of the Government. But
in the reformasi, the Pikiran Rakyat changed to support
all society movements that created media freedom,
supported and joined to push for the Press Law in 1999
and the Broadcast Law in 2002, and is now pushing for
the Information Law.
Waspada
Waspada is a newspaper in Medan that is distributed all
over North Sumatra and Aceh. It covers the national,
international and local news. Particularly the Aceh
version has three pages with mostly local news. It
circulates more than a hundred thousand copies per day
in North Sumatra.
Waspada is a conservative newspaper that strictly
promotes Islam. All of its women workers wear
customary clothes according to the religious rules. It
strongly opposes Aceh separatism. The office of Waspada
in Aceh is often bombed or threatened to be bombed.