The Legacy of Jakob Oetama
I took the title of this opinion piece from a book I wrote with F. Harianto Santoso in 2016. The title refers to the legacy of idealism contained within the journalistic ideas and works of Jakob Oetama.
I took the title of this opinion piece from a book I wrote with F. Harianto Santoso (Kompas R&D) in 2016. The title refers to the legacy of idealism contained within the journalistic ideas and works of Jakob Oetama, who is 88 years old today.
It represents the many commentaries of various styles that have become classics and cited by many, their original meaning often defined, developed or parodied. It represents what Jakob Oetama has achieved over 65 years (from his time as reporter at the Penabur weekly in the 1960s) in launching and developing Kompas with P.K. Ojong, which was followed by other businesses under the Kompas Gramedia group.
He has expressed dozens of views, some of which have become oft-quoted classics, others transitory and some forgotten. In the aforementioned book, these various views – many of which come from the 1970s to the 1990s, Jakob Oetama’s most prolific era – cover themes from humanity to nationalism, to journalistic development and getting to know one’s homeland better. Kompas’s Way Jakob Legacy copyrights all the policies Jakob instilled in steering the Kompas daily through the decades. Jakob Oetama holds the copyright to Kompas’ journalism.
I have deliberately refrained from speaking “mengenai jurnalisme kepiting” (of crab journalism), the phrase most people ask about when speaking of Jakob Oetama and one most closely linked to his name. The phrase, first uttered by senior journalist Rosihan Anwar in referring to Kompas’ journalistic style, embodies Jakob’s journalistic policies and practices. Cynics call him a coward, while others say Jakob possesses high intellectual intelligence. His old business partner, P. Swantoro, often used the phrase to refer to Jakob’s emotional intelligence.
Comforting the afflicted
The original phrase is “comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable”. Jakob arrived at this concept through a long process that involved books (Jakob is known as a voracious reader of heavy journalism textbooks) and encyclicals of the Catholic Church leadership and the documents of the Second Vatican Council that started being released in 1964, as well as his personal reflections on everyday life (Jakob often has difficulty sleeping whenever incidents that insult human dignity arise).
Among the writings he admires is a classical journalistic adage from Irish-American journalist Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936), famed for his essays in the Chicago Evening Post. He is famed for the quote, “The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable”.
In Dunne’s era, newspapers strived to grab the reader’s attention with what is today known as investigative journalism. Most readers of the time did not want a truth that covered all sides of a story, but mere sensationalism. Another famous saying is: “If it bleeds, it leads” [attributed to New York Magazine’s Eric Pooley], freely interpreted to mean, if people want sensation, why don’t we give it to them?
As readers sought sensation, newspapers departed from their true nature as an educator and a reminder. Newspapers raced each another to get there until they became known as the yellow press, after a comic character wearing an oversized yellow shirt named “the yellow kid” that was published by two competing major newspapers, the New York World and the New York Journal.
People were getting fed up and tried to remind the two newspapers about what they were doing. Dunne was critical and not easily swayed by people’s opinions. Instead, he questioned the extent of a newspaper’s responsibility. It was to this query that he came up with the brilliant response, “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”.
The journalistic profession has its privileges. It blends the brain, the heart and the soul in imagining that journalists can look beyond the surface to make predictions.
Jakob Oetama, who is known for giving new meaning to well-known expressions and using current events to provide deeper and more fundamental insights on the world, imbued Dunne’s phrase with new meaning and multiple nuances. Among these was compassion, an idea derived from Daniel Lerner who wrote in 1958 about the journalist’s ability to adapt to their surroundings. Jakob reaffirmed compassion as integral to professional journalism.
Jakob then developed other expressions, such as the nobility and smallness of humans and “no angels in the world”, always critical, always anxious, never satisfied and always searching. He then developed these expressions into journalistic wisdoms.
In this context, the phrase “humanisme transendental” (transcendental humanism) – coined by P.K. Ojong in a manuscript he wrote in 1974 – frames the core requirements of a journalist. Jakob enriches the phrase with new meaning, including work as integral to one’s service to fellow men. In later years, Jakob often referred to this as “pious humanity”.
The journalistic profession has its privileges. It blends the brain, the heart and the soul in imagining that journalists can look beyond the surface to make predictions. “Mini Indonesia” was the vision and prototype Jakob wished to develop with P.K. Ojong from the outset. Jakob then came up with new content, focusing on Indonesia’s diversity as a concept for developing the new paper. He upheld the principles of watchdog journalism, but introduced new ways of doing it.
Development journalism
If newspapers and the media as a whole had previously taken on the role of a medium for directly criticizing various government policies, Kompas conveyed its criticisms politely. It does not just point to the failures in its criticisms, but also the success stories. This was known as development journalism, a term previously unheard of [in Indonesia].
This type of journalism – and its practices – is not without its critics. Many accusations have been laid against it, such as cowardly, playing it safe and seeking profit. On the other hand, many appreciate it as a manifestation of “Jakob Oetama’s intellectual intelligence”. Jakob, being Javanese, cannot always be black and white, and is recognized for his high sense of human dignity and for being highly skilled in communicating his criticisms, especially through his editorials. Jakob is well aware that Indonesia is vast, and that what he has accomplished with Kompas is only a tiny part of it.
Jakob has unwittingly become a teacher of civic responsibility, as is clearly reflected in his editorials. He offers Indonesia’s wealth of cultural diversity. As a result, journalism and its practices provide meaning to all that is occurring.
He continued to learn from great thinkers, at least until 2016-2017. He has always had heavy textbooks nearby, from middle school to seminary, through Gadjah Mada University and to his beginnings as a journalist. He was so obsessed with a French textbook on journalism that he ravaged it word by word – with the help of a dictionary.
During his peak, aside from leading the Kompas Gramedia management following Ojong’s death on 30 May 1980, Jakob regularly invited external experts to discussions at Kompas.
When the digital era and paperless trend invaded the world, Jakob was open to these new ideas. Entrusting the design of the digital-era Kompas to Roger Black, and since 2005 to world-class newspaper and magazine designer Mario Garcia, Kompas has strived to maintain its existence. Challenges continue for Kompas’ younger generation – the millennial generation that has Jakob’s trust – and broad opportunities remain in resculpting the faces of Kompas and Gramedia in terms of their ideals and businesses. Kompas lives on.
Nderek tanggap ambal warso 88 taun – wishing you a Happy 88th Birthday, Pak Jakob.
St Sularto, Senior Journalist