The danger of poor broadcasting regulations for local election

R. Kristiawan, Jakarta

Indonesia will soon see dozens of local direct elections. Next month alone, according to Cetro (The Center for Electoral Reform), there will be 181 elections, an average of six elections per day throughout the country. For the year there will be 215 elections -- mayors, regents and governors.

Last year's legislative and presidential elections showed the effective power of the media, especially TV stations, in delivering the messages of the candidates to the voters.

For all of these elections, national and regional TV coverage will play a key role. There are around 50 local television stations across the country. Some belong to private companies, but several are owned and operated by local governments. Yogyakarta is rather unique, because Yogya TV belongs to the family of Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, who also happens to be the governor of the special province. Meanwhile, state-owned TVRI has 24 local stations.

In a local television workshop last February, participants from local television stations generally agreed that the direct elections were an important item to cover. Most felt it was their duty to encourage democratization on the local level through their stations.

But the absence of any local broadcasting regulations in relation to the elections has blurred their democratic perspective. For many regions across the country, popular political discourse on these elections has not touched on the the need for local media regulation.

The Indonesian Broadcasting Committee (KPI) has 14 active provincial branches, or (KPID). But many of them have not developed local media regulations in relation to the upcoming polls. Worse still, in the case of Papua, there are several TV stations but there is not a KPID branch.
According to a survey by the SET Foundation (2005), there is an enormous tendency to control local media during the campaigning. The case of a regency in West Java shows that the regent actually pays many local print media journalists monthly. Their "salaries" can range between Rp 250,000 (US$25) and Rp 400,000.

The money is intended to ensure media support of the regent in the campaign process. It has become a very effective tool for the regent. Because, as a result, the local newspapers all support the regent and his policies and do not print anything about the corruption accusations against him. Similar cases are likely to occur with the electronic media if there is no regulation.

Local television stations were only allowed to start operating after Soeharto's fall in May 1998, with a strong sense of political idealism. But this political orientation now has shifted to an economic orientation, since they need to cover costs for daily operation. Some local stations, like Bali TV and Tarakan TV in East Kalimantan, have succeeded in this transition. Now they are quite prominent in Indonesia in terms of business.

Local TV stations need regulations, especially during the upcoming local direct elections. Due to the absence of local broadcasting regulation, the stations can be easily used by political power. "Win-win agreement" between stations and the political powerholders will potentially take place since local stations need money.

There is a chance for local political powerholders to use local stations for their interests.
First is by monopolizing large blocks of airtime, many local stations now have problems in program production, so they will likely take what is offered. This problem directly relates to advertising income. If candidates can buy up the airtime, the station will get income. But this means that the candidates who have much money will dominate the TV programs. Without regulation, candidates have possibility to cooperate with local televisions to air TV programs as par of their political campaign.

Second is by buying up all the commercial ad time. Many local stations have problems airing commercials as well. The problem is, in Indonesia there is no difference between commercial advertising, political advertising and Public Service Announcements (PSA). Thus, there is no special treatment whether it is soap, tooth paste, condoms or a governor in Indonesian commercial policy. This ultra liberal perspective means also that there is no limitation to the number or types of ads.

Candidates with a lot of money will potentially dominate the advertising. Wealthy candidates have more opportunities to campaign on local television-commercial breaks. They potentially will be more popular than poorer candidates. Similar problems actually occurred in the national elections last year.

For many regions, there are only a few weeks left to overcome this problem. Of course it is impossible to enact a new law, but the authorities still can overcome the problems. Local Election Commission branches (KPUD) and Local Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPID) can publish a common decree on local broadcasting regulations before the elections. The KPID needs to collaborate with the KPUD because the KPID has no right to publish regulations, but the KPUD do have that right.

This solution was pioneered by the KPID of West Java province. Many other regions are not as progressive as West Java. We are now still waiting to see the same steps taken by others, particularly North Sumatra. We need to encourage this solution for many regions especially for those that will conduct local direct elections in June 2005.

However, some KPIDs still are facing a myriad of internal problems, such as difficulties in organizational skills. Some of them have difficulties in defining their function, especially in terms of the campaigns, and independence is hard to implement. In Central Java, one KPID officer is a candidate for mayor in the upcoming poll. Will there not be some kind of conflict of interest?
Despite all the problems, the KPID should be encouraged as an institution to promote democratization in broadcasting in local level.

The writer is a researcher with the SET Foundation, and is a lecturer at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta. He has conducted research for the local direct elections in Papua, West Java, and West Sumatra.

(as published in the Jakarta Post, Monday 23/05/05)