Be Smart Radio

‘Be Smart Radio’ was established in 2003 as a political and religious independent radio station. Their airtime is split in three parts, where the different parts are politics (60%), economy (20%), and entertainment (20%). The radio station does not speak in Indonesian, but the local language Mangarrai. This is because 90% of the locals in the area are farmers with little education, and they can often not speak or understand Indonesian.

Formally there is freedom of speech in Indonesia, but it does not always work that way. And having the trade of a reporter can be a dangerous job for a person who wishes to bring the truth to the surface.

Though they have had their quarrels with the locals, it is mainly the government that the radio criticizes. This is because of broken promises, KKN, and abuse of power. And because the ‘freedom of information act’ still has not been ratified, the people of Mangarrai and Indonesia in general do not know where the money goes.

But it is not only the government who gets criticized by the radio, also the church have gotten its fair deal of the criticism. This is because the money they gather in the Sunday mass does not go back to people anymore. Instead of using the money on the Catholic schools or catholic health institutions, they decided to build a new house for the priest, at the cost of 1 billion Rupia. When the radio criticised this, the public didn’t like it and some people physically attacked the radio station.

But the times are getting better. Now a NGO has partnered up with the radio station and they together are conducting an investigation of the local governance, and they hope in the future that their work will help the government to get ‘clean’.

Del/Tips: