Unspun

It is frustrating reading newspapers in Indonesia. Very often the journalist fails to ask the obvious questions and the editors are either too hard pressed or dumb to get them to go back to ask the questions.

Take, for instance, today’s lead story in The Jakarta Post about Vice President Jusuf Kalla visiting Aceh. Somewhere in the middle of the story Kalla was purported to become displeased “when he noticed that there were no drainage systems connecting the homes” of the resettled Aceh residents.

At this point Kalla apparently berated BRR chief Kuntoro whose only reaction seemed to be in perpetual confusion.

But the story completely fails to follow up on the obvious question: was Kalla right and the BRR had forgotten to build a drainage system in its housing complexes? If so, and a  straight question to Kuntoro or a senior BRR officer should confirm this, then the BRR is guilty of negligence and waste of public resources, as accused by the vice president. This would be a big story, Unspun would have thought certainly bigger than Jusuf Kalla’s crafty switch of license plates on his car.

If, however, BRR did build a drainage system then Kalla was out of line and flying off his handle for un justified reasons. This would also be a big story – VP rants and raves for no good reason, demoralizing BRR staff.

So where does the truth lie? Those of us who were not there would never know. Oncfe again journalism here has failed to hold the right people qaccountqable for their actions (or inactions). Sigh.