Indonesians in Focus: Wimar Witoelar

Wimar Witoelar is undoubtedly the finest journalist in Indonesia at this present time and highly respected for his political views and social comment. His website, perspectif online is not only interesting to read, but thought provoking. Wimar’s World, a TV program, is a show I would never miss, but alas, it has been scraped!.

Currently Wimar is in the private sector. Television and radio engagements present his public profile in addition to personal appearances and articles in Indonesian and international media. Anissa S. Febrina explains more about this charismatic gentleman of the media world.

‘Wimar’s World’, too hot to handle?

Forget celebrity gossip shows, these days the most divisive and controversial issues are aired on TV talk shows.

The “talk” on shows like Jak-TV’s Wimar’s World got “so hot” that the private station said recently it needed “cooling down”.

Regular viewers of the show hosted by prominent speaker Wimar Witoelar are in for a big letdown if they tune in this week as the show has been scratched.

“The contract for the first 13 episodes of Wimar’s World has ended and we are currently holding the show to re-format it,” program producer Martin Mohede said.

The Wednesday night show on which invited guests — including government and city officials — discussed topical issues, was as of last week the most popular of Jak-TV’s top-rating programs.
The station only airs in Jakarta.

Normally, television stations rely on their top-rated programs to attract advertisers, generally the main source of income for the media.

If Jak-TV is prepared to lose advertising revenue to terminate, suspend or modify a show, then there must be something wrong.
Wimar questions government policies with a sharp tongue, humor and wit, much to the annoyance of certain top city officials who were invited to talk on his show, a source at the station said.

Using cooking a special dish as an analogy for the show, the source said it had become too “hot and spicy” for some.

“We must understand that not all people like it spicy, thus we must make the necessary changes so it better suits everyone,” the source added.

Just how hot and spicy did the show got?

Although the host said he had never been informed nor warned about it, Wimar recalled a number of remarks he made both to city officials and Jakarta governor hopefuls on both Wimar’s World and Gubernur Kita (Our governor), a similar program aired by the station on which he is a panelist.

Some of the remarks involved the performance of the current Jakarta administration in dealing with urban problems, while others touched on the issue of corruption in one of the city’s infrastructure projects.

“I have a certain style as a host. Some might have taken my remarks personally, but then again I have never been warned about being too offensive,” Wimar said.

This recent incident reminded Wimar of how his talk show at national private station SCTV was scratched in 1993.

“But back then we could understand the situation. Freedom of speech was a luxury,” he said.

In a so-called era of reform like today, people are free to speak their minds without fear of being punished by the authorities.
Or so we thought.

Communications and media expert Effendi Ghazali said it was greatly concerning if it were proven that officials were meddling with freedom of speech.

“The danger is that it occurred at provincial level. It could set a bad example for other provinces.”

But public speakers should also be very careful about what they say and how they say it as they could be held liable for libelous statements, he said.

Jak-TV denies having been pressured by any official to “cool down” the program.

“Pressure from outside parties is normal for the media. It is everywhere. But the decision is in our hands,” Mohede said.
Let the public be the judge.

Anissa S. Febrina