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Indonesian state television: Battle of
wills
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA
- Cash-strapped state-owned television station Televisi
Republik Indonesia (TVRI) has 7,158 employees and 395
relay stations in 26 provinces. It reaches out to 81.5
percent of the country's total population, or more than
169 million people, but is being slowly but surely
forced off the air.
TVRI needs at least Rp2
trillion (US$225 million) to rejuvenate its old
equipment, including its 400 relay stations across the
archipelago, but last week broadcasts were halted in the
Medan, the provincial capital of Sumatra, after its
remaining operational funds had been used up.
Medan is the latest casualty in a war of
attrition that belies government claims that the
national channel is to be given a new lease on life as a
state-owned entity. TVRI broadcasting services at other
Sumatran stations, Lampung, Bengkulu and Aceh, have been
inactive for six months, as has the station in Central
Kalimantan. TVRI Semarang in Central Java may stop
transmissions this month if expenses cannot be covered,
putting 375 jobs at risk.
TVRI was set up in
1962, primarily to broadcast the Asian Games held in
Jakarta, and was run by a yayasan (foundation)
controlled by the now-defunct Ministry of Information.
For more than three decades TVRI was notorious for its
monotonous programming and was looked down on as being
the government's mouthpiece. This image cost it a great
deal in terms of popularity and partly explains its
uphill battle for viewers in areas where there is a
choice.
The die seemed cast for TVRI and those
70 percent or so of its audience who live in rural
areas, where private TV channels are difficult to pick
up, when the government decided to convert TVRI from a
social-service corporation to a public-service company.
The new status was granted through Presidential
Decree No 36/2000. Under the decree, TVRI changed to a
Perusahaan Jawatan (Perjan), a non-profit state company
under the authority of the Ministry of Finance. Its
employees thus became civil servants of the Finance
Department assigned to TVRI.
Then another
chameleon-like change took place last April with TVRI
metamorphosing into a state limited-liability
corporation (Persero). Government Regulation (PP) No
9/2002 changed the status of TVRI from a Perjan to a
Perusahaan Terbatas or limited-liability company (thus
no longer enjoying a government subsidy).
From
then on TVRI was sidelined and to this day awaits the
formal conversion to a corporation with operational
procedures, corporate rules, a chain of command, and
assured funding.
The government last year
allocated Rp157.87 billion to TVRI, including salaries
for 5,635 of its employees, but for its broadcasting
operations alone TVRI needs at least Rp894.25 billion a
year, excluding equipment maintenance and replacement
costs. It needs an estimated Rp1.2 trillion every year
but earns no more than Rp235.21 billion.
In this
year's state budget (APBN) no operational funds at all
are allocated. Ministry of Finance director general for
budgeting Anshari Ritonga excused this farce by saying
he was not informed of the pending status change until
January; this in spite of a letter from TVRI on December
2 to the finance minister and the minister for
state-owned enterprises (SOEs) requesting operational
funds of Rp157.873 billion from APBN-2003.
Salaries for this year will be paid, but little
else. As the employees retain the status of civil
servants, their pay is secured from an item "ex-Perjan
employees of TVRI" already allotted in the 2003 budget.
TVRI has been allowed to air advertisements for
some time now but it faces formidable competition from
the existing private stations. Prior to this it was not
permitted to air commercials but received 12.5 percent
of gross advertising revenues of privately owned TV
stations SCTV, Indosiar, Metro TV, ANteve, RCTI and TPI.
Most of these simply did not pay, claiming hard times.
In October 2001, TVRI terminated its accord with the
errant stations, citing Rp200 billion in outstanding
claims.
TVRI president Sumita Tobing, who took
over the reins in June 2001, was appointed along with
four executive directors, Sutrimo, Badaruddin Achmad,
Ahmad Adiwijaya and Barita Effendi Siregar, all of whom
she later suspended.
Sumita, 56, has done her
best to drag the company into shape ready for a proper
restructuring. Unfortunately, her style of management
has made her more enemies than friends, with almost
every single TVRI director calling for her removal.
Though she breathed life back into the station
with new and popular programs, Sumita is permanently
under fire for what her critics say is a "one-woman
show" style of management. Almost daily infighting at
the station has met her attempts to purge what she
describes as a complacent "civil servant" mentality that
leaves only 10 percent of its workforce productive.
Sumita started with TVRI in the late 1970s. She
left in 1992 to work for ANteve and in the interim
became the first Indonesian woman to achieve a doctoral
degree in broadcasting, at Ohio University, aided by a
scholarship from TVRI. In 1993 she was headhunted by
SCTV. After building the Liputan 6 news service into a
national leader, she left because of disputes with top
management. Then she went to Metro TV, Indonesia's first
24-hour news channel, before leaving there because of
internal disputes.
In her second coming to TVRI
she has been accused of being involved in corruption,
appointing a non-employee of TVRI to lead a project
valued at Rp100 billion, and a host of other such sins.
The leading lady suspended marketing director
Sutrimo, administration and finance director Badaruddin,
and a couple of other directors after accusations by
them that her grip of iron left them on the sidelines.
By last November the government's game plan had
changed. During the protracted debate over the new
Broadcasting Bill, legislators succeeded in ensuring
that the bill allowed for TVRI, as a national asset, to
remain under the government's control.
The "keep
it public" lobby argued that change of ownership would
transform the state television station into a purely
profit-oriented enterprise and said the government
should do everything to maintain TVRI as a state-owned
entity to maintain its social mission.
Funding
for this social mission was never debated. Last month
Sumita sent out circulars advising all TVRI regional
stations to tout for loans in order to cover operational
costs.
The mid-1990s saw most of the action in
media empire-building. The regionally based network
system of the time allowed some television stations,
ostensibly with limited licenses to operate only in
certain regions, gradually win permission to transmit
across the country after large investments, lobbying and
deals with the Cendana (Suharto) clan. The Jakarta media
barons who currently control what is screened to 220
million people are mostly still relatives and associates
of former president Suharto.
Other stations came
on to the scene and raced to build relay stations in a
bid to grab as wide an audience as possible. RCTI set up
no fewer than 47 stations, and other channels built
tower after tower to beef up their relay stations,
despite only having preliminary licenses.
Thus,
a television station with only one broadcasting permit
was able to transmit nationally. Those halcyon days are
now over.
The House of Representatives (DPR)
passed the new Broadcasting Law last November 28 and
thereby in effect ended the stranglehold of the
Jakarta-based conglomerates and media magnates on
television screens across the nation. Officials admitted
openly that the purpose of the Broadcasting Law is to
democratize the airwaves by breaking up the oligopoly of
the Jakarta-focused stations.
Under the new law,
the 10 major private television channels in Jakarta will
no longer be allowed to broadcast their programs
nationally. If a television station in Jakarta, for
example, wants to expand its coverage to Surabaya (East
Java), it must set up a joint venture with a local
Surabaya station, which will then relay or rebroadcast
the Jakarta-based station's programs via its frequency.
Conversely, a station based in the provinces
must find a counterpart in Jakarta willing to relay its
programs if it wishes to reach viewers in the capital.
This is how Indonesian radio stations operate,
some of which have a network of 200 relay stations
nationwide, and who are obviously under no threat from
the new regulations.
The law grants existing
private television stations that are already
broadcasting nationally a grace period of five years,
before having to fall into line.
Under the new
law, local provincial or regional administrations, or
their city-owned companies, can also set up their own
public television and radio stations using money
appropriated from the local budget. The establishment of
these public stations is subject to the approval of the
local council.
Even though no formal permits
have been issued by the central government, there are
already about a dozen locally based stations on the air
in various provinces around the country and some 35 new
regional TV stations outside of Jakarta are set to begin
operation, posing a further challenge to TVRI, which has
so far dominated the airwaves in remote areas of
Indonesia.
Initial fears that some regional
governments would try to lay claim to the state
broadcaster's assets within their jurisdictions have
proved to be unfounded.
The idea is that, with
regional autonomy and the allocation of broadcasting
frequencies to local communities, the provinces will no
longer have Jakarta's broadcasts and views pressed upon
them.
The law also provides opportunities for
foreigners to invest. However, non-Indonesians can only
invest in a TV station once it has gone public, and even
then are only permitted to own a maximum of 20 percent,
hardly likely to entice the foreign media barons.
Aside from the ominous dangers posed by the
restriction of foreign news coverage and handing back
ultimate control of the airwaves to the state, the bill
has clearly been designed with the new post-Suharto
political realities in mind.
After all, the
strategic importance of television can hardly be
underestimated given that, with voters able to choose a
president directly in next year's elections, the reach
of the Jakarta-based stations and their impact on the
120 million voters can be very powerful.
It is
against this backdrop that the government is playing
brinkmanship with TVRI. Ownership of a private
television station will confer substantial political and
financial benefits, but being financed by the government
means an increased chance of TVRI being controlled by
its political masters.
Industry experts point
out that there are only two choices for the government -
either privatize TVRI or liquidate it. Sumita is all for
privatizing the station, saying lack of professionalism
of its personnel as well as poor efficiency have helped
hasten its imminent demise.
She blames the
mounting debts on years of poor and non-transparent
management as well as corruption and "civil servant
mentality". She says TVRI will never be able to improve
its professionalism as long as civil servants run it and
that once it becomes a limited-liability company, it
will be rid of bureaucracy.
Gearing up for
privatization would mean a purge of all the rent seekers
and corrupt management and lead to a massive
retrenchment program among its employees. The government
is unlikely to risk yet another privatization pitched
battle in the run-up to the 2004 elections. The
short-term financial future for TVRI is likely to depend
on the persuasive powers of the new management team
rather than any strategic planning.
Sumita wants
Minister for SOEs Laksamana Sukardi immediately to
legalize TVRI's corporate charter as a Persero and
appoint new executive directors and board members to
replace the old leadership.
TVRI may obtain
funds through Sukardi's ministry but these will only be
forthcoming after it has completed the change to a
limited-liability company.
Some idea of the
government's attitude and the enormity of the dilemma
for TVRI can be gleaned from Sukardi's comments.
Questioned by reporters, he admitted that he already has
the names of the new nominees to head up his new
acquisition. "But I haven't opened the envelope," he
said glibly.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.
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