(Makalah untuk seminar pada “The First Asean Photo Festival”, diselenggarakan Konfederasi Wartawan Asean (CAJ) di Hanoi, Vietnam, 25-26 September 1997).
ONE DAY in 1979, I was with four Indonesian journalists on a tour to Vietnam that brought us to interesting places, includmg Dien Bien Phu. It was a brief visit, but I had strong impressions which stick in my memory until today.
Our team was the second Indonesian group to have visited Dien Bien Phu over the past three decades. (The visitors registrar listed Mr. Ruslan Abdulgani, the former Indonesian foreign minister, who visited Dien Bien Phu early in the 1950s).
While taking a walk through the village, I saw a mortar for pounding rice in a house b
asement. That mortar reminded me of the same tool in my home village in West Sumatera– called “lesung berindik”, used to husk paddy.
The diference, however, was that people did not hold the pestle in their hands as commonly seen the vilages in Indonesia, but they manipulated its pounding using their feet instead. The husk or chaff has to be pilled off the paddy grains to get out the white rice.
Anthropologists would say that the tool represents a cultural artifact, an ingenuity, an invention of a community. Question: how did the farmers in Vietnam and West Sumatera, and the rest of Indonesia, come to the idea of creating the same tool to perform the task? (The answer, indeed, needs further studies).
In the same trip, I visited Cambodia too, and met Cambodians who look similar in posture, skin complexion, and facial features with people in Indonesia. The same impressions when visiting Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and even Singapore, which form the Southeast Asian nations.
In the Philippines, one would feel like at home. The Filipinos look no different from people in the rest of South East Asia. The Philippines called their leaders and the President as pangulo, which means leader.
The very word reminds me of a West Sumatran panguiu who heads a clan family. In Indonesia, the term is pronounced penghulu that implies a social or communal chief.
I AM sharing the flashback to point out that Southeast Asian nations, indeed, have many common features despite of the diversity in cultures, religions, and perhaps historical backgrounds.
This brings to my point, a proposition that the similarities be treated as potentials of common heritage of humanity that deserve promotion through visual communication, the technical language of photography, and written reporting in our print and electronic media (TV and motion pictures).
By communicating one another’s similarities and unique characteristics of peoples in South East Asia, we will help enhance public awareness and sense of belonging as being part of an Asean-10 community (with Cambodia joining later) of more than 500 million people.
In the words of former Thai deputy foreign minister, Dr. Surin Pinsuwan, the peoples in Asean are heavenly destined to live together in South East Asia. This is also a reason to be grateful. We are here not of our choice.
WHAT CAN journalists and press photographers do to help raise awareness of one Asean community? Mass media serve as a ‘mediator’ to bridge between peoples and disseminate mutual knowledge of one another’s countries, peoples, cultures for the purpose of improving perceptions and judgments.
Journalists in Asean should do their part to enhance mutual understanding so that peoples in the region may relate with one another, not just as neigbours, but more as members of Asean fraternity, sharing the same destiny and purpose to advance economically, culturally, and intellectually.
Knowing the similarities of cultural roots of Asean nations has become more important in the present world of information revolution and globalisation. People need information that can be assimilated and interpreted for spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional advancement. Likewise, communication should provide necessary information for understanding and practical purposes.
World media freely communicate information across borderless nation states, and even intrude our living rooms. But some western media tend to blow up conflicts, and in certain cases, incite conflicts to exacerbate contradictions. We should counter its adverse effects by providing objective information.
Perhaps, it is a good idea for Asean journalists to regularly travel to Asean member countries and report back what they see.
PEOPLE IN the Asia Pacific have had a colonial past. We should never forget history. Our countries were colonized by the West. The colonial powers incited conflicts and prevented fraternity to develop among nations in the region. Even nowadays, they tried to prevent Mynamar from joining Asean. This phenomenon should be watched closely.
Asean countries are independent and free, giving top priority to national unity and regional cooperation. Any influence that might disrupt unity and stability should be prevented. Otherwise, there would be no conducive environment for social and economic development. It is understood that independence and freedom should provide the best condition for peace and cooperation.
Ironically, some of our mass media people love to report conflicts without trying to lead public opinion towards solutions. This should be minimized.
THE SUN rises in the East, not in the West, and that the world’s great religions, moral and ethical teachings come from the East. This is another heritage for human spiritual enrichment, that should be preserved and shared.
Advanced communication has shrinked the world into a small village. Almost everyone nowadays talk about globalisation, calling for submission to the technological advancement. The buzzword: adjust yourself to globalisation, and do not ever try to fight against it.
Despite progress, there seems to be a spiritual impoverishment going on. Ethics and morals take a backseat in the scramble for gains and profit. Ideally and ethically, progress should be for the betterment of social life and people’s dignity.
WE SHOULD not forget what Nature teaches us. Changes affect life. But changes ought to bring peoples and nations to a better tomorrow. To illustrate my point, we look at Nature that produces big and small trees. However, it should not mean that big trees may impede the growth of the smaller ones.
The existence of a bigger one should make the smaller one feels protected. In management term, we may say “good leaders should open ways for better ones to grow and rise up”. Similarly in business, profit gained should strengthen the corporate and make itself in better position to produce more public goods for people’s welfare, not just for the company’s own sake.
The lesson from this metaphor suggests that progress should benefit all in the common pursuit of progress, harmony and peace in accordance to the grand design of the Almighty God.
The cues that we get from Nature should bring journalists to the task of helping to create necessary conditions that promote understanding and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Journalists are expected to be a step ahead of the society by bringing the light — information and communication — to open public’s mind, enlighten their horizon, articulate their aspirations for improvement, and call for the accountability of those, either in government or private sectors, who are responsible to deliver the greatest public goods for the greatest number of peoples.
Journalism should, therefore, be understood within this framework to enlighten the public on matters deemed urgent and necessary for society. Journalists can do it through reporting and presenting photos in our mass media. They also need the cooperation of various sources in the society.
The world is said to be changing into an information age. We hope journalists and photographers can do their part through information and communication in building civilization and cultural environment where humanity, peace, harmony, people’s dignity flourish in Asean.
The full-fledged development of human beings calls for much more than mere economic growth. “At its hearts,” says Aung San Su Kyi as recited by former President Corazon Aquino at the Unesco World Commission on Culture and Development (Manila, 21 November 1994) and reported by the press, “there must be a sense of empowerment and inner fulfilment.”
Thank you.
Ed Zoelverdi
* Member — Confederation of Asean Journalists (CAJ); Head of Photojournalism Working Group for the Indonesian Journalists Association.