Johannes Nugroho: Media Should Prioritize Accuracy, Not Nationalism
A 2014 statistic put the number of Indonesian Facebook users at 69 million, with another saying 96 percent of the nation's netizens use social media. The sheer popularity of social media in Indonesia has also been instrumental in encouraging the growth of online media in the Indonesian language. While its proliferation means that Indonesians now have a wide range of news sources to choose from, the issues of ethics and accuracy, or the lack thereof, remain the main hurdles to quality online journalism in the country.
The government’s recent crackdown on radical Muslim media websites deemed to be spreading religious extremism signifies the extent of the problem. Another major, yet less talked-about problem is the widespread lack of accuracy in the content of articles glutting Indonesia’s online media, most of which are culled from various international sources.
Mistranslation is perhaps the most common and recurring problem. A recent example is an article in Indonesian titled “Bloomberg: Jauh Berbeda dari SBY, Jokowi adalah pengamat canggih peristiwa international," uploaded on April 24. The article claimed that the US media company Bloomberg eulogized President Joko Widodo as a consummate observer of international politics. Upon cross-checking, the Bloomberg piece is an article published on the same day with the title “Indonesia under Widodo shifts from ‘zero-enemies’ diplomacy."
The Indonesian article is not a word-by-word translation of the original Bloomberg news report. Rather, the author used it to form the basis of his or her highly nationalistic, if inaccurate, opinion article. The first few paragraphs, apart from prophesying a “new order” ushered in by Jokowi, praises the president’s insistence on being seated prominently at international summits as an expression of national pride.
Dismissive of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)’s legacy in foreign affairs, portrayed as weak and subservient to foreign interests, the article surmises that Indonesia only received “a piddly bag of peanuts” (recehan) under Yudhoyono.
Linguistically, the Indonesian used in the article is less than eloquent, often relying on English terminology and Indonesianized English words in a bid to make the piece sound intellectual. Ironically, almost all the English expressions used are either wrongly rendered, such as “deal per deal basis” or even nonsensical, such as “agresif profit.”
What is more damning, the author took great liberties with the original Bloomberg article. The grossest inaccuracy lies in the title, clearly based on a quote by an Australian academic used in the original report, “My sense is that Jokowi is a very unsophisticated observer of international events but has strong ideas about how the world works.”
The fatal mistake occurs as “very unsophisticated” is translated as “sangat canggih,” which has the complete opposite meaning. The adjective “sophisticated” can indeed be translated as “canggih” in Indonesian but the complete disregard for the prefix un- suggests both utter incompetence and irresponsibility. Unfortunately, the article was widely shared on social media and even had a re-run in Kompasiana.
Apart from the mistranslation, there is evidence that suggests that the author failed to understand the subtleties of the English language, having missed the slightly sarcastic nature of the second half of the quote, "… but has strong ideas about how the world works."
The reference to president Sukarno in the original source also prompted the author to launch into a patriotic narrative listing the virtues of Indonesia’s first president. Though Sukarno seems almost unavoidable in any rhetoric on Indonesian nationalism, here again the author failed to grasp the reference to Sukarno was not adulatory in intent.
The confusion over Sukarno also highlights the distorted view of history common among Indonesians. As Indonesian netizens embrace globalization, they may be in for a rude awakening, discovering a great discrepancy between what is taught in Indonesian history classes and what scholarly research reveals about our history.
Both Indonesia’s first and second presidents, Sukarno and Suharto, were known to have intervened in the writing of our history. Early on, Sukarno sought to codify Indonesian history to effect “nation-building” by way of exaggerating certain details in history whilst ignoring others, a process discussed in scholarly works such as Rommel Curaming’s "Towards Reinventing Indonesian Nationalist Historiography."
Both Sukarno and Suharto also made a habit of revising historical details for political purposes. The latter’s political affinity with the military, as historian Katherine McGregor wrote in her "History in Uniform: Military Ideology and the Construction of Indonesia’s Past," led to historical narratives that established the Indonesian Military's prominence in the nation’s history.
However, this phenomenon is not taught in Indonesian schools; nor is it widely discussed. To most Indonesians today, Sukarno was a founder of the republic who succeeded in making the country “great” and “formidable” in the eyes of the world. Yet, unbeknown to many Indonesians, he was also a rabid jingoist with an expansionist agenda.
It is crucial that we tackle the intellectual issues that plague our proliferating online media. An independent press ombudsman office may be needed to warn against inaccuracy and irresponsible bias in the media. Unpalatable as it may sound to our nationalists, we must pause to reflect on the intellectual damage caused by past manipulations of history. An anti-history brand of nationalism is after all as dangerous as religious extremism.
Johannes Nugroho is a writer from Surabaya. He can be contacted at johannes@nonacris.com.
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