Jumat, 18 Juli 2008

More Dissent Voices*

By Muchlis Ainur Rofik '03

"The campaign is failing. The perception of the U.S. effort, shopkeepers and scholars alike say, ranges from insincere at best to hypocritical at worst."

Those words, written by Julie Chao of Cox News Service and published by Pacific Currents, show how the United States has failed to win support among Indonesian Muslims for its war against terrorism.

For a long time, Indonesia has been recognized as a moderate Muslim nation and key ally of the United States. With the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, especially after September 11, Indonesia—the largest Muslim country in population—was expected to play a key role in the war against terrorism.

The mainstream media in the United States has pointed out many times since September 11 that Indonesia is a haven for Islamic terrorist cells. And many commentators are disappointed that Indonesia has been reluctant to take a decisive stand against those accused as key figures of Islamic terrorism networks.

As the United State began bombing in Afghanistan and trying to break up Taliban cells throughout the world, anti-Americanism grew broadly—not only among Islamic fundamentalists but also among moderate Muslims and secular human-rights activists. Religious solidarity mixed here with the issue of human rights and nationalism.
The U.S. government, actually, has been working hard to counter anti-Americanism. It has aired television ads, sponsored scholarships and student visits to the United States, and even organized a town hall-style exchange between Indonesian and U.S. studio audiences using satellite hookups.

But as far as I know, and as Chao has pointed out, the campaign is failing. U.S. actions speak louder than words. Many of its actions, such as restrictions on men from certain Middle Eastern and Muslim countries, including Indonesia, and its foreign policy, especially its unwavering support for Israel, disappoint many Indonesian people. A worldwide survey released in December by the Pew Research Center found that the number of Indonesians with a favorable view of the United States fell to 61 percent last year from 75 percent in 1999.

With a war in Iraq, such anti-Americanism could have troubling political and social consequences. Not only could a war cost the United States the support of moderate Islamic leaders, but it could also destabilize the Indonesian government and help radical groups gain more members.

As a graduate of Islamic institutions, I entered journalism with a clear idealism. Before, I was an activist with a religious-based NGO (non-government organization). I was involved with many groups which promoted transformation—modernization, moderation, and tolerance—within Islamic society in Indonesia. With its powerful impact, I thought journalism could effectively promote to a powerful and wide audience the idea of Islamic moderation and tolerance.

With the tensions surrounding religious radicalism nowadays, not only in Indonesia, but all over the world, I am more curious about what should and could be done by journalism to promote a peaceful and moderate religious belief. Being here at Ann Arbor is, for me, a great blessing, because the entire Knight-Wallace Fellowship program really satisfies my curiosity. The program not only gives me a larger context for the problem, but more examples of good journalism.

One such example is Samantha M. Shapiro's article, "The Unsettlers," published recently in The New York Times Magazine. In the piece, Shapiro raised the very critical source of religious radicalism: Arab-Israeli conflict. Her article was about millitant Jewish people who settled the hilltops of the West Bank and who have no interest in compromise or peace plans.

Islamic radicalism, with its effect today everywhere in the world, is, of course, a very serious problem. But, by reporting on these other radicals, Shapiro gave a balanced perspective, a dissenting voice within mainstream media which prefer to focus mainly on the Islamic radicalism. Shapiro also gave me an important example of how media should understand the larger context of the so-called "war against terrorism."

As for the worsening circumstances of anti-Americanism and the rise of religious radicalism—as are now happening in Indonesia and in many Muslim countries—I thought it actually could be avoided. Anti-Americanism and the growing tension surrounding religious radicalism—as was pointed out by Shapiro's piece—is to some extent a result of misrepresentations in U.S. mainstream media. Having been in the States for more than six months, I found that mainstream media tend to misrepresent "the tree" for "the forest," by focusing on the U.S. Adminstration and the domestic agenda.
As I have learned that radicalism usually stems from this kind of one-sided perspective, I believe journalism now is in need of a broadened and enlarged coverage.

Muchlis Ainur Rofik is an assignment editor for Metro-TV in Jakarta.

*)From The Journal of Michigan Fellows, Volume 13, No 2 - Spring 2003

Tidak ada komentar: