“May you live in interesting times!”
So true is the Chinese curse above to me. I am a journalist living in a nation where the freedom of speech is in its nascent state. People are all ecstatic with the sudden freedom we assumed after the 1998 bloody reformation, which brought the three-decade old authoritarian regime under president Soeharto into an end.
I am not working in a turbulent situation where it is hard to gather news and publish them. Neither gunpoint nor death threats did I experience in my 10 years of journalistic career – something older generation of journalists did. I am not living in conflict-strife areas like in Aceh or Poso. I live the country’s capital, Jakarta, where journalists are among the No. 1 citizens.
We can reach any big wigs in the government offices by phone. We can ask tough questions to the military or police without fears that on the next day our dead body will be found on a street.
On the contrary; being a journalist makes my life easier!
On several occasions I have been stopped by traffic police for breaching traffic rules. For ordinary people, the options are paying bribe and walking away, or receiving the sanction and being ticketed. Journalists, in most circumstances, can skip those things and go unpunished without paying any bribe. “Sorry, Sir. I am in a hurry. I am a journalist.” That is the magic words.
Do I sound proud with such a status? I am not. Instead it makes me embarrassed.
I just want to say that the whole noble idea of freedom of speech is at stake here. Not by violence and suppression but by our own corruption.
The media can influence the course of the nation’s history as we can talk or write and get attention. But, we can jeopardize our opportunity to make a difference by our indifference and ignorance towards rampant corruption and injustice in the society. The press can turn out to become another bourgeois corps in the modern society, who denies chances to build the society on the basis of fairness, justice and humanity.
We have invisible enemies to fight, stronger than ever: ourselves. No one will blame us if our society is not getting better. No one will condemn us for enjoying the situation of being pampered in our new privilege and status.
But, we know deep in our hearts that we have done something evil: Squandering our chance to make the world better and join the crowd of the corrupt.
And, indeed, the Chinese curse applies here: May you live in interesting times. Since, these are the times that try men’s souls.
Damar Harsanto
City Editor
The Jakarta Post, Indonesia