The Contrasts, the Details, and the Big Moment

by Mary T. Rogus, Associate Professor

We had left Columbus, OH nearly 36 hours earlier. After three different flights, we were rumpled, tired and incredibly anxious to get off the plane. We are myself, Mary T. Rogus, Associate Professor of Broadcast Journalism, Tim Sharp, WOUB News Director and Scripps Faculty member, and Lindsey Seavert, WBNS-TV Reporter. For me, despite the exhaustion of travel, there was a special thrill as the plane descended and the red clay roofs, palm trees and tropical flowers that typify Indonesia came into view. A smile of anticipation at seeing the 18 Indonesian journalists I’ve come to know so well, touched my lips. I was back in Jakarta for my third visit.



Our trip is the last phase of a State Department grant for a program on Conflict and Diversity Journalism which Ohio University developed. After workshops in Jakarta and at OU, and then six week internships at Ohio television stations, the last part of this journalism exchange is to bring Ohio journalists to Indonesia to see how its news media works. So it is my pleasure to introduce Tim and Lindsey to some of the most wonderful people they will ever meet.



Of course as we drove into the city from the airport, Tim and Lindsey notice what strikes me every time I go out into Jakarta—the incredible contrast between modern development and abject poverty. In center city Jakarta there are skyscrapers and parks and fountains, with almost ostentatious retail/entertainment complexes. Yet just a mile away you drive by shanty towns that it is impossible to imagine are ‘home’ to thousands of people. And they marvel, as I do each time I go out, at the amazing traffic. There are lines on the road, but they seem to have no relevance to where people drive—the road may be marked for two lanes, but there are easily four lanes of traffic with hundreds of motorbikes weaving in and out among the cars and mini-buses. I think even a New York City cab driver would find it tough to survive Jakarta traffic!



Tim, Lindsey and I also had the fun of dealing with the money here—one US dollar is equivalent to 9000 Indonesian rupiah. So we all left the airport millionaires after converting our cash. But then it hits you hard when the deposit at the hotel is 1.4 million! And it didn’t take Lindsey or myself long to blow the power in our rooms as we tried to use our handy dandy converter plugs and then turn on our high power hair blow dryers.

Our second day in Jakarta we made the first of many television station visits, and I was reunited with the first four Indonesian journalists who came to Ohio. It was great to see them in their environments. SCTV is similar to a superstation, like WGN or TBS. It broadcasts entertainment programming and news to the entire country, which is huge. (Indonesia is the fourth largest country with more than 240 million people spread over 17,000 islands.) SCTV just moved into a brand new facility which is part of a large, very upscale, mall. Again one is struck by the contrasts of designer labels versus ragged clothing and bare feet.



While we are walking around SCTV’s new, state-of-the-art newsroom, Nurul Admin, a producer gives me the news that will definitely be a highlight of this trip. One of the things the Indonesian journalists did while in the US was attend a reception at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. They also saw the professionalism of US journalists and the assistance that groups such as the National Press Club can bring. Nurul was so impressed by this idea of an organization to support journalists that he got together with some other journalists here in Jakarta and organized the National Press Club of Indonesia. The organization just launched this week with a debate among the presidential candidates for Indonesia, and they had more than 70 journalists as well as dozens of dignitaries attend. When he showed me the brochure for the organization, Ohio University and this program are mentioned in his bio as an important element in the development of the organization. I can’t begin to tell you the impact of seeing his work and receiving his new business card embossed with National Press Club of Indonesia. That kind of organization is exactly what this exchange program was all about—helping journalists in this country, which hasn’t had a free press that long, develop professionalism and a set of ethical standards to hold their new government accountable. Our greatest hope was that the 18 journalists who participated would come back with strong bonds among themselves, and spread what they’d learned to other journalists across the country. The National Press Club of Indonesia is the pinnacle of reaching that goal. As Nurul talked about the Club and what he hoped to accomplish with it, I was choked up with pride at what he had done and the inspiration that this exchange program provided to accomplish this major task.

Tomorrow we visit another station in the morning and then head off to Jogyakarta, a much smaller city with historical ruins and significance for Indonesia. I am very excited to see some of what people here call the ‘real’ Indonesia. My two previous trips I never got out of Jakarta because of very tight schedules. So Tim, Lindsey and I will explore what is supposed to be some of the more beautiful Indonesian countryside, together for the first time.