Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover

A copy of Indonesian news weekly, Tempo, depicting Suharto and his children in a composition based on Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper in Jakarta.

Source: Google 2008

This article is taken from AEDT that talks about Indonesia’s top news magazine, Koran Tempo apologised over their cover of its latest issue. The cover depicts the former president Suharto and his children in a mimicking Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The cover also features a sketch of Suharto who had already passed away, taking Jesus Christ’s central place at a table surrounded by his children instead of apostles. This issue has triggered complaints and angered from the Christians as well as inter-religious organisations. An overview of Indonesian press, media, TV, radio, newspaper was provided in press reference (2009) the duty of press is to ‘strengthening national unity and cohesion’. However, laws relating to the media started to revolutionize due to quick progression. As suggested in press, media, TV, radio, newspaper et al. (2009) they started to eliminate press licensing, remove the ability of the government to ban publications and guaranteed freedom of the press in 1999. Hence, due to this law any news agencies are free to publish anything they want. This is because nobody can take any action as it is embedded inside the law. This is why the cover is published by Koran Tempo magazine as the law did not restrict the freedom and regulations in the press. Furthermore, the censorship control in Indonesia is not rigid enough and most of them did not take this issue into considerations as well as seriously. The Kopkamtib which was the agent that supposes to monitor the press and censorship in Indonesia. As shown in press, media, TV, radio, newspaper et al. (2009) rather than control censorship, the agency was more likely to hold a briefing telling what kinds of news should be printing. This is why the cover is release to the media and public without any block from the government. Koran Tempo magazine should also think twice before decided to use a composition that can hurt and insult the Christians although they had no intention of doing that. They must study the background of other religion, race and culture before publishing the cover. This is to respect other religion as we dislike people criticise our own religion. Schirato and Yell (1996) argues that culture make meanings from an enormous variety of signs systems, elements as apparently basic to human survival are transformed into complex sets of resources for meaning making. In my opinion, they should consider all these aspects before publishing a cover or article so that it will not hurt other’s people.

Reference List

1. Indonesian Press, Media, TV, Radio, Newspaper 2009, pressreference.com, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://www.pressreference.com/Gu-Ku/Indonesia.html>
2. Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy, Allen & Unwin, NSW