NINO
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07:22:52 pm on November 19, 2008 | # |
Beginning from May 29, 2006, hot mud erupted in Porong, Sidoarjo as a result of the drilling activities of an oil company, Lapindo Brantas Inc. After two years, the mud eruption still has not stopped, and became a dangerous threat for the people who live in that area because nobody can predict where the eruption will occur and when it will stop.
This research will focus on internally displaced persons in Porong, Sidoarjo, Indonesia, as the victims of the East Java mudflow disaster, and how they are represented in Indonesian media. This disaster is not merely an environmental problem, but it represents a major political disaster in Indonesia (Schiller, Lucas & Sulistiyanto 2008). Until now, the government together with the oil company has not done anything successful in stopping the eruption nor did it prevent the social impact of it.
I am interested in looking at how different actors respond to this disaster, and how the process of framing of the whole drama is constructed. This research tries to answer the following question: how do the victims of the East Java mudflow disaster frame the disaster, themselves, and the other actors, who are involved in this disaster, and in which ways do particular media enable them to voice their proper rights?
Personally, I choose this topic because I live in the area that has been affected by this disaster. I have witnessed this disaster since the beginning (May 2006), and I am still observing the developments now. The after-effect of the mudflow is unimaginable in social-economic terms. The attempts by the government and/or the company have not produced any fruitful results. I am driven by humanitarian considerations, and curious to see if the victims’ proper rights are being met.
Societally, the mudflow disaster had not only destroyed the environment that is covered by the mud, but also has destroyed the infrastructure and the economy of East Java. The mudflow has devastated the transportation system (toll way, highway, bridges, and rail way) that connects the Tanjung Perak Harbor in Surabaya (the capital of East Java Province) and other industrial areas in East Java (Pasuruan, Probolinggo, Malang, Jember, Lumajang, and Banyuwangi), Bali and Lombok. Not only big industries have collapsed, the home industries also have been affected. Ten factories have been covered by mud so that they must stop their activities, and were forced to dismiss their workers. The mudflow impact also hit the tourism sectors in Probolinggo (Bromo), Pasuruan, Mojokerto, Batu and Malang as well.
Academically, this disaster is not merely an environmental problem but also a humanitarian matter that is related to the issues of development, state, company, and the public sphere. Schiller, Lucas and Sulistiyanto (2008) try to describe the complicated relationships between the government and the company as consequences of which the victims are suffering until now. In other words, this disaster is not merely an environmental problem. It is Indonesian “disaster politics” due to the owner of the company being also the minister of the recent (or this) cabinet. In planning and doing development the state has forgotten (development can not forget, phrase differently) the people’s interests and only focused on the elite’s interests. And I want to look at the involvement of the media, as public sphere that also one of the important institutions in democracy, involved in this problem.
I know that my research will not solve the whole post-disaster sociocultural problems. But I believe that my fieldwork and the report will be a small contribution to the victims’ future. By doing this research, I hope I can become another channel/media for the victims to voice their concerns. In a sense, I am also “mediating the victims” by listening to their voices and putting it on paper.
