Sekolah Tinggi Pembangunan Masyarakat (STPM) Santa Ursula Ende mengembangkan program peningkatan kualitas melalui Satuan Kredit Kegiatan Ekstra-kurikuler.
Oleh FRANS OBON
Bahasa Latin bilang Non scholae sed vitae discimus. Kita belajar bukan untuk dapat nilai, tapi belajar untuk hidup. Life skill searah dengan ini. Kita belajar untuk mengelola hidup. Gelar akademik perlu untuk menunjukkan bahwa seseorang pernah menempuh pendidikan di perguruan tinggi. Dan selesai. Namun gelar itu kulit luar. Isi dalamnya, bobotnya jauh lebih penting.
Memberi bobot. Nilai lebih. Mutu lulusan. Itulah yang hendak ditempuh Sekolah Tinggi Pembangunan Masyarakat Santa Ursula, Ende. Mulai tahun 2008 ini, sekolah tinggi ini mengharuskan mahasiswanya memenuhi Satuan Kredit Kegiatan Ekstra-kurikuler yang total angkanya 100 poin selama delapan semester. Kalau tidak mencapai angka tersebut, mahasiswa bersangkutan tidak akan diwisuda. Tiap kegiatan diberi skor angka kum (kredit). Total per semester 20 poin. Angka kum (kredit) ini diperoleh dari keterlibatan mahasiswa pada organisasi, membuat makalah, menulis opini di media massa, dan menulis paper.
Pembantu Ketua I, Paskalis FX Hurin, 23 Agustus lalu, bilang pada saya bahwa program baru ini tujuannya meningkatkan mutu lulusan sekolah tersebut. Sebagai lembaga pendidikan tinggi, sekolah ingin memberi bobot dan nilai lebih pada mahasiswa.
“Selama ini banyak mahasiswa hanya bolak balik dari kos ke kampus, dari kampus ke kos. Waktunya tidak pernah diisi dengan kegiatan lain. Rutinitas biasa saja. Program baru ini adalah inisiatif sekolah agar mahasiswa punya nilai tambah,” katanya.
Sebagai langkah awal, kegiatan orientasi studi pengenalan kampus (Ospek) kali ini diubah bentuknya. Mahasiswa tidak hanya tahu urus administrasi di kampus, urus angka akademik, dan bereskan uang kuliah, tapi dikemas dalam bentuk permainan. Di ujung permainan, mahasiswa Ospek yang jumlahnya 136 orang buat refleksi. Apa makna permainan itu. Tiap orang pasti punya interpretasinya masing-masing. “Kita menggunakan metode pembelajaran orang dewasa,” kata Feri.
Sebelum Ospek, lembaga ini menggelar kegiatan outbound. Dari evaluasi, kegiatan ini bermakna bagi pembentukan pribadi mahasiswa. Cara ini kemudian digunakan dalam Ospek kali ini.
Komitmen lembaga ini ke depan, kata Feri, mau menghasilkan mahasiswa yang punya keterampilan dan keahlian. Mahasiswa tidak hanya bergelut di ruang kuliah, tapi juga melakukan kunjungan kerja lapangan, berdiskusi. Melalui cara ini, mahasiswa diasah cara berpikirnya. Muncul kreativitasnya. Punya komitmen dengan masalah masyarakat di luar kampus. Di sini peran dosen tidak kecil. Penyajian kuliah tidak hanya pakai ceramah melulu, namun bawa juga mahasiswa keluar kampus dan berdiskusi.
Ada tiga penekanan utama dari angka kum kredit ini. Pertama penalaran dan keilmuan yang dinilai lewat karya ilmiah, makalah, opini pada media massa. Kedua, minat dan kegemaran (olahraga dan seni), dan ketiga kesejahteraan dan kewirausahaan (jadi anggota koperasi, usaha bersama simpan pinjam).
“Menghindari adanya manipulasi, kita akan kontrol. Mesti ada surat keterangan”.
Aloysius Belawa Kelen, dosen STPM yang memberikan topik “Manajemen Pembalajaran di Perguruan Tinggi” pada saat Ospek tahun ini mengatakan, dia gunakan metode proses untuk membangkitkan kesadaran kritis mahasiswa. Pertama-tama ia ingin mahasiswa mengenal dengan baik situasi perguruan tinggi pada umumnya. Cara ini ingin mengetahui persepsi mahasiswa mengenai perguruan tinggi dan harapan yang mereka mau dapatkan dari perguruan tinggi.
Cara ini juga untuk menjawabi perubahan paradigma proses pembelajaran di perguruan tinggi. Sebelumnya, dosen jadi pusat. Sekarang mahasiswa jadi pusat. “Indikasinya langsung kelihatan, yakni dosen tidak lagi jadi satu-satunya sumber. Guru hanya bilang, ini materinya, you baca dan belajar sendiri,” katanya.
Proses ini dipermudah lagi dengan munculnya otonomi di perguruan tinggi. Dulu perguruan tinggi swasta harus melewati ujian negara, sekarang sekolah menyelenggarakan sendiri ujian. “Kurikulum juga didesain sendiri”.
Dalam proses perkuliahan, lanjutnya, proses belajar juga dilakukan lewat syering, diskusi, dan membaca literatur yang diberikan, dan studi kasus.
Alo bilang, pemberlakukan Satuan Kredit Kegiatan Ekstra-kurikuler amat membantu mengimplementasikan visi dan misi lembaga pendidikan tinggi tersebut, dengan fokus pada pencetakan kader-kader yang andal.
Untuk mengontrol semua program angka kum (kredit) ini, akan ditunjuk dosen pendamping akademik oleh sekolah. Feri Hurin mengakui bahwa memang tidak gampang untuk menentukan dosen pembimbing akademik. Jumlah mahasiswa makin bertambah. Kesibukan dosen juga bertambah.
Alo menambahkan, tujuan yang ingin dicapai dari program ini adalah terbentuknya proses kreatif di kalangan mahasiswa dan sekolah mau mengembangkan potensi mahasiswa di luar ruang kuliah. Namun, dia mengingatkan bahwa program peningkatan mutu melalui angka kum untuk kegiatan di luar kampus ini dijalankan dengan kontrol yang ketat, sehingga “tidak terkesan mau mengejar sertifikasi”.
Alat kontrolnya ada, katanya. Misalkan makalah. Makalah ini diuji lagi. “Tidak hanya sekadar ada tulisan, makalah. Tapi sungguh-sungguh mahasiswa bisa melakukannya sendiri,” katanya.
Proses ini tidak mudah. Itu diakui oleh Alo Kelen. “Pengalaman saya, ketika kita minta mahasiswa menulis, mereka tidak tahu mulai dari mana. Di sini diperlukan bimbingan dan proses yang terus menerus”.
Karenanya, langkah awal adalah mendesain kegiatan Ospek dengan menciptakan permainan yang punya nuansa ilmiah. Debat. Diskusi. Debat.
David Sola, sekretaris panitia Ospek bilang kepada saya, sambutan mahasiswa peserta Ospek terhadap desain Ospek bernuansa ilmiah ini cukup bagus. Ini terlihat dari antusiasme mahasiswa.
“Teknik ini amat membantu mahasiswa memecahkan persoalan yang mereka hadapi. Mahasiswa menafsir makna permainan dan ini akan membantu mereka untuk memberikan pertimbangan dan memutuskan sendiri solusi atas masalah mereka sendiri,” katanya.
Barnabas Bego, seorang peserta juga melihat ada manfaat cukup besar dari kegiatan ini. “Ospek ini luar biasa. Kami mendapatkan latihan dan pembinaan melalui permainan. Ini akan membantu membentuk kepribadian mahasiswa. Apalagi sekolah ini memang mau menciptakan kader andal yang akan terjun ke masyarakat,” katanya.
Ospek telah berakhir. Sekaranglah saatnya, semua rancangan program yang indah ini ditawarkan sebagai alternatif pengembangan pendidikan di lembaga pendidikan tinggi. Non scholae sed vitae discimus. Kita sekolah bukan untuk dapat nilai (ijazah) tapi kita belajar untuk hidup. Gelar sarjana pasti jadi impian semua mahasiswa. Tapi mesti lebih dari itu. Bukan sekadar ijazah.*
Flores Pos | Feature | Perguruan Tinggi |16 September 2008
17 September 2008
09 September 2008
Flores Pos daily newspaper
By FRANS ANGGAL
Chief editor of the Flores Pos
A paper presented at the Conference of the Representatives of Catholic newspapers in Asia Seoul, 22-23 March 2007. This paper was translated from Malay to English by Andreas Harsono of Pantau media group in Jakarta.
Indonesia is a country that hosts the largest Muslim population in the world. But it has a strong Christian presence on its eastern area, living in sparsely populated islands like Flores, Rote, Timor, Papua, the Malukus, central and north Sulawesi as well as smaller islands like Tanimbar, Kei, Dobo etc. Indonesia’s most important island is Java where around 65 percent of Indonesia’s total population of 220 million live. Java’s landmass, however, accounts for about six percent of the total land areas, putting the issues of population the most crucial agenda in Indonesia.
Flores is a predominantly Catholic area. Around 95 percent of its 2.5 million population are Catholics. The most influential Catholic organization in Flores is the Societas Verbi Divini (SVD). In 1912, SVD established office in Ende, a small town in central Flores, to start doing evangelical works initiated earlier by Jesuit and Dominican priests since the 17th century in eastern Flores and Timor Island.
SVD runs not only churches but also schools, farms and publications. It currently has a book publishing company, PT Arnoldus Nusa Indah, as well as the Flores Pos daily, Dian weekly tabloid and Kunang-kunang children magazine. PT Arnoldus' office is located on El Tari Street in Ende, sharing a single compound with the Flores Pos daily, the Dian weekly and the Kunang-kunang children magazine. It also has some meeting rooms and a hall for a bigger event.
Historial Backgrounds
In 1925, four years after securing its office in Ende, SVD published the Bintang Timur monthly magazine. Unpaid subscription, however, prompted the SVD to close this magazine in 1937. It is very likely that Indonesia nationalist leader Soekarno, who was exiled in Ende in the early 1930s by the Netherlands Indies administration, also subscribed to Bintang Timur. Soekarno befriended some SVD priests in Ende.
In 1948, SVD published Bentara bi-weekly and its insert Anak Bentara children magazine. Bentara became quite popular, supporting SVD’s education programs and schools, making the circulation to peak at around 35,000 copies. Financial difficulties again prompted SVD to close the bi-weekly in 1958.
In 1973, SVD created new magazines: Dian bi-weekly and Kunang-kunang children monthly magazine. Kunang-kunang was pretty famous not only in Flores but also in many parts of Indonesia, including Java. In 1987, Dian became a weekly tabloid.
In the 1980s, Indonesia started to see the emergence of Java-based media conglomerates such as the Kompas Gramedia Group, the Tempo Jawa Pos group and the television industries. An unexpected result of the SVD’s media works is that Flores has produced many journalists, prompting the Flores-educated journalists and editors to work in the emerging media networks. Today the number of Flores journalists working in Java is bigger than those working in their homeland.
In 1998, General Suharto, Indonesia’s strongman who ruled the country since 1965, was forced to step down from power. It prompted a huge political upheaval in the archipelago. Indonesia’s secessionist provinces such as Aceh, Papua and East Timor immediately pressured for their independence. Other provinces in the Maluku islands, partly in Borneo as well as in Sulawesi were involved in violent communal violence. Muslim and Christian fighters engaged in deadly wars in the Malukus and Poso in central Sulawesi. Anti-Chinese riots also rocked Jakarta and Solo in Java as well as Medan in northern Sumatra. Political assassinations were the news of those days.
In August 1999, East Timor voted for independence in a UN-administered referendum. Indonesian military and their militias burned and looted East Timor. Around 10,000 East Timorese died in the massive burning and killing, raising the anger of the international community against the Indonesian military. President Bill Clinton decided to impose a military embargo against Indonesia. His move was copied by other western countries.
Retreating Indonesian generals subsequently faced a new problem. Where should they place thousands of displaced soldiers and militias as well as their families? International peacekeeping forces obviously prevented these frustated soldiers to return to East Timor. An idea circulated among the generals. They wanted to move their retreating soldiers and militias to neighboring Flores. They wanted to move the Dili-based Wirasakti military command to Ende.
It alarmed Flores leaders as well as the Flores diasporas in Java. Hosting thousands of frustated soldiers, who were regularly involved in burning and killing, is a serious threat in a relatively peaceful area like Flores. As a major institution in Flores, SVD was also involved in the debate. Dian weekly was considered to slow to report on the rapid daily development of the pressing issue. SVD decided to publish a daily newspaper in a bid to accommodate various opinions over the plan and to inform the public about such a plan. On Sept. 9, 1999 SVD published the Flores Pos daily in Ende, mobilizing the public opposition against the plan. Founding members included publisher Henri Daros SVD, chief editor John Dami Mukese SVD, Frans Ndoi SVD and Valens G. Doy (Kompas daily journalist). Flores figures in Jakarta intensively lobbied the military. President Abdurrahman Wahid finally shelved the military plan in 2000.
SWOT Analysis
The military issue was the starting point in publishing the Flores Pos. It then began to regularly bring news reports and editorial pieces from Monday to Saturday every week. Its mission is to voice the oppressed and to monitor those in power.
It is owned by a Catholic order but the Flores Pos is more like a regular newspaper. In a bid to promote religious dialogues, it provides religious columns for every religion in Flores. Its workers are religiously diverse. They are mostly Catholic but it has Muslim and Protestant employees indeed. The Friday Forum column is dedicated for Muslims while the Sunday Forum are for Catholics and Protestants.
Currently it also conducts monthly discussions on various issues in a bid to broaden the intellectual discourses among its audience. It sometimes open public donation for the poor and natural disasters victims. When Manggarai had a major landslide in March, killing more than 60 people, the Flores Pos opened a public donation. It collected more than 20 million rupiah ($2,000). It also conduct annual seminars on economic, political and cultural outlooks.
Fact Sheet
Format: tabloid Monday-Saturday
Pages: 1999 (8) 2001 (12) 2003 (16)
Legal status:
1999-2002 under Flores Media Foundation
2002-now under PT Arnoldus Nusa Indah
Vision: establishment of truth, justice, peace and integration of creation
Mission: to conduct prophetic dialogues with the oppressed people, other religious communities, other cultures and other ideologies
The Flores Pos has some strength factors. According to the 2006 audience survey by Pantau, it has a strong brand name. Eighty four (84) percent of the surveyed respondents in Flores know the Flores Pos. It is just less two percents from its main competitor, Pos Kupang daily, at 86 percent. Pos Kupang is a subsidiary of the Kompas Gramedia Group. It is based in Kupang in western Timor.
Flores Pos locally produces 90 percent its contents. They are supplied mainly by its seven bureaus in Flores and one in Kupang. The bureaus are stationed in towns like Labuan Bajo, Ruteng, Bajawa, Ende, Sikka, Larantuka and Lewoleba on Adonara Island. More than 60 people work for the Flores Pos. They include 23 editorial staff. The others are working on its marketing, finance, distribution etc.
In September 2006, the newspaper began to make unprecedented changes. Georgia Scott of The New York Times helped redesign the Flores Pos. She introduced cleaner, more spacious and easy-to-navigate news design. The newspaper also introduced bylined news reports. It is a rare even among Jakarta newspapers. The newspaper also put the mobile number of its reporters near their names, providing a chance to involved readers to call the reporters if the stories lacking something. It also publishes a feature story everyday on the front page. Reporters should also verify their stories. They can’t publish single-sourced stories. The SVD is committed to have these chances.
Obviously the newspaper also has its weakness. Its human resources lack training. Many journalists are not well trained to report and to write analitically. The non-editorial staff are mostly high school graduates. None of them specializes on business development and marketing.
Financially its income is not enough to cover expenses. Everyday it prints 3,500 copies of which 70 percent go to subscribers. It is priced at 2,000 rupiah per copy ($20 cents). Financially it should only break even if printed 7,000 copies.
Its equipments, from computers to cameras, from printing press to transportation means, are pretty old. Most correspondents send their stories by fax. The reports, when reaching the newsroom in the evening, must be retyped. Most bureaus have no internet connection. Its printing press is not for newspaper printing. It has no newspaper folding facility. Workers have to manually fold 3,500 copies of printed papers, every night, into folded newspapers.
The Flores Pos has some opportunities. It could increase its circulation based on the fact that the reading habit in Flores is higher than Indonesia's national average. It is now working with Swisscontact and Pantau to increase the newspaper’s capacity building.
In March, the Flores Pos is also published jointly with Hidup magazine in Jakarta. It makes a possible passage to raise advertisement incomes from ad agencies in Jakarta. Last but not the least, small and medium enterprises are growing in Flores. Flroes has no big industries. But these small companies are stronger and more durable than the big ones. It was proven during the Asian economic crisis. They want to advertise in the Flores Pos.
The possibility to set up a Catholic newspaper network in Asia is also a chance to increase its capabilities.
The treatment factors are quite numerous. Land transportation in mountainous Flores is very tough. It takes one week just to travel from Labuan Bajo in the west to Larantuka in the east. Newspaper distribution is very expensive. Using public transport is costly. Having our own distribution is also costly.
Today the Flores Pos is “surrounded” by Pos Kupang’s long distance printing presses in Ruteng (west Flores) and Maumere (east). It is quite a challenge. In Flores, people don’t buy two newspapers in a single day. If they already buy Pos Kupang, obviously they won’t buy the Flores Pos.
Newsprint must also be imported from Java and the shipment cost is quite dear. Another treatment is the oil prices that always increase in Indonesia over the last ten years. It prompts higher inflation every year. Flores is also one of Indonesia’s lowest income areas. The public buying power is limited. They prefer to secure their meals rather than buying a newspaper.
A network of Catholic newspapers in Asia might create a cooperation in the region, benefiting newspapers like the Flores Pos, Dian and Kunang-kunang children magazine in Ende. The Flores Pos also needs a capital injection to buy a new printing press to print long distance both in Maumere and Ruteng. Similar assistances like what Georgia Scott’s are highly needed in Ende.
Chief editor of the Flores Pos
A paper presented at the Conference of the Representatives of Catholic newspapers in Asia Seoul, 22-23 March 2007. This paper was translated from Malay to English by Andreas Harsono of Pantau media group in Jakarta.
Indonesia is a country that hosts the largest Muslim population in the world. But it has a strong Christian presence on its eastern area, living in sparsely populated islands like Flores, Rote, Timor, Papua, the Malukus, central and north Sulawesi as well as smaller islands like Tanimbar, Kei, Dobo etc. Indonesia’s most important island is Java where around 65 percent of Indonesia’s total population of 220 million live. Java’s landmass, however, accounts for about six percent of the total land areas, putting the issues of population the most crucial agenda in Indonesia.
Flores is a predominantly Catholic area. Around 95 percent of its 2.5 million population are Catholics. The most influential Catholic organization in Flores is the Societas Verbi Divini (SVD). In 1912, SVD established office in Ende, a small town in central Flores, to start doing evangelical works initiated earlier by Jesuit and Dominican priests since the 17th century in eastern Flores and Timor Island.
SVD runs not only churches but also schools, farms and publications. It currently has a book publishing company, PT Arnoldus Nusa Indah, as well as the Flores Pos daily, Dian weekly tabloid and Kunang-kunang children magazine. PT Arnoldus' office is located on El Tari Street in Ende, sharing a single compound with the Flores Pos daily, the Dian weekly and the Kunang-kunang children magazine. It also has some meeting rooms and a hall for a bigger event.
Historial Backgrounds
In 1925, four years after securing its office in Ende, SVD published the Bintang Timur monthly magazine. Unpaid subscription, however, prompted the SVD to close this magazine in 1937. It is very likely that Indonesia nationalist leader Soekarno, who was exiled in Ende in the early 1930s by the Netherlands Indies administration, also subscribed to Bintang Timur. Soekarno befriended some SVD priests in Ende.
In 1948, SVD published Bentara bi-weekly and its insert Anak Bentara children magazine. Bentara became quite popular, supporting SVD’s education programs and schools, making the circulation to peak at around 35,000 copies. Financial difficulties again prompted SVD to close the bi-weekly in 1958.
In 1973, SVD created new magazines: Dian bi-weekly and Kunang-kunang children monthly magazine. Kunang-kunang was pretty famous not only in Flores but also in many parts of Indonesia, including Java. In 1987, Dian became a weekly tabloid.
In the 1980s, Indonesia started to see the emergence of Java-based media conglomerates such as the Kompas Gramedia Group, the Tempo Jawa Pos group and the television industries. An unexpected result of the SVD’s media works is that Flores has produced many journalists, prompting the Flores-educated journalists and editors to work in the emerging media networks. Today the number of Flores journalists working in Java is bigger than those working in their homeland.
In 1998, General Suharto, Indonesia’s strongman who ruled the country since 1965, was forced to step down from power. It prompted a huge political upheaval in the archipelago. Indonesia’s secessionist provinces such as Aceh, Papua and East Timor immediately pressured for their independence. Other provinces in the Maluku islands, partly in Borneo as well as in Sulawesi were involved in violent communal violence. Muslim and Christian fighters engaged in deadly wars in the Malukus and Poso in central Sulawesi. Anti-Chinese riots also rocked Jakarta and Solo in Java as well as Medan in northern Sumatra. Political assassinations were the news of those days.
In August 1999, East Timor voted for independence in a UN-administered referendum. Indonesian military and their militias burned and looted East Timor. Around 10,000 East Timorese died in the massive burning and killing, raising the anger of the international community against the Indonesian military. President Bill Clinton decided to impose a military embargo against Indonesia. His move was copied by other western countries.Retreating Indonesian generals subsequently faced a new problem. Where should they place thousands of displaced soldiers and militias as well as their families? International peacekeeping forces obviously prevented these frustated soldiers to return to East Timor. An idea circulated among the generals. They wanted to move their retreating soldiers and militias to neighboring Flores. They wanted to move the Dili-based Wirasakti military command to Ende.
It alarmed Flores leaders as well as the Flores diasporas in Java. Hosting thousands of frustated soldiers, who were regularly involved in burning and killing, is a serious threat in a relatively peaceful area like Flores. As a major institution in Flores, SVD was also involved in the debate. Dian weekly was considered to slow to report on the rapid daily development of the pressing issue. SVD decided to publish a daily newspaper in a bid to accommodate various opinions over the plan and to inform the public about such a plan. On Sept. 9, 1999 SVD published the Flores Pos daily in Ende, mobilizing the public opposition against the plan. Founding members included publisher Henri Daros SVD, chief editor John Dami Mukese SVD, Frans Ndoi SVD and Valens G. Doy (Kompas daily journalist). Flores figures in Jakarta intensively lobbied the military. President Abdurrahman Wahid finally shelved the military plan in 2000.
SWOT Analysis
The military issue was the starting point in publishing the Flores Pos. It then began to regularly bring news reports and editorial pieces from Monday to Saturday every week. Its mission is to voice the oppressed and to monitor those in power.
It is owned by a Catholic order but the Flores Pos is more like a regular newspaper. In a bid to promote religious dialogues, it provides religious columns for every religion in Flores. Its workers are religiously diverse. They are mostly Catholic but it has Muslim and Protestant employees indeed. The Friday Forum column is dedicated for Muslims while the Sunday Forum are for Catholics and Protestants.
Currently it also conducts monthly discussions on various issues in a bid to broaden the intellectual discourses among its audience. It sometimes open public donation for the poor and natural disasters victims. When Manggarai had a major landslide in March, killing more than 60 people, the Flores Pos opened a public donation. It collected more than 20 million rupiah ($2,000). It also conduct annual seminars on economic, political and cultural outlooks.
Fact Sheet
Format: tabloid Monday-Saturday
Pages: 1999 (8) 2001 (12) 2003 (16)
Legal status:
1999-2002 under Flores Media Foundation
2002-now under PT Arnoldus Nusa Indah
Vision: establishment of truth, justice, peace and integration of creation
Mission: to conduct prophetic dialogues with the oppressed people, other religious communities, other cultures and other ideologies
The Flores Pos has some strength factors. According to the 2006 audience survey by Pantau, it has a strong brand name. Eighty four (84) percent of the surveyed respondents in Flores know the Flores Pos. It is just less two percents from its main competitor, Pos Kupang daily, at 86 percent. Pos Kupang is a subsidiary of the Kompas Gramedia Group. It is based in Kupang in western Timor.
Flores Pos locally produces 90 percent its contents. They are supplied mainly by its seven bureaus in Flores and one in Kupang. The bureaus are stationed in towns like Labuan Bajo, Ruteng, Bajawa, Ende, Sikka, Larantuka and Lewoleba on Adonara Island. More than 60 people work for the Flores Pos. They include 23 editorial staff. The others are working on its marketing, finance, distribution etc.
In September 2006, the newspaper began to make unprecedented changes. Georgia Scott of The New York Times helped redesign the Flores Pos. She introduced cleaner, more spacious and easy-to-navigate news design. The newspaper also introduced bylined news reports. It is a rare even among Jakarta newspapers. The newspaper also put the mobile number of its reporters near their names, providing a chance to involved readers to call the reporters if the stories lacking something. It also publishes a feature story everyday on the front page. Reporters should also verify their stories. They can’t publish single-sourced stories. The SVD is committed to have these chances.Obviously the newspaper also has its weakness. Its human resources lack training. Many journalists are not well trained to report and to write analitically. The non-editorial staff are mostly high school graduates. None of them specializes on business development and marketing.
Financially its income is not enough to cover expenses. Everyday it prints 3,500 copies of which 70 percent go to subscribers. It is priced at 2,000 rupiah per copy ($20 cents). Financially it should only break even if printed 7,000 copies.
Its equipments, from computers to cameras, from printing press to transportation means, are pretty old. Most correspondents send their stories by fax. The reports, when reaching the newsroom in the evening, must be retyped. Most bureaus have no internet connection. Its printing press is not for newspaper printing. It has no newspaper folding facility. Workers have to manually fold 3,500 copies of printed papers, every night, into folded newspapers.
The Flores Pos has some opportunities. It could increase its circulation based on the fact that the reading habit in Flores is higher than Indonesia's national average. It is now working with Swisscontact and Pantau to increase the newspaper’s capacity building.
In March, the Flores Pos is also published jointly with Hidup magazine in Jakarta. It makes a possible passage to raise advertisement incomes from ad agencies in Jakarta. Last but not the least, small and medium enterprises are growing in Flores. Flroes has no big industries. But these small companies are stronger and more durable than the big ones. It was proven during the Asian economic crisis. They want to advertise in the Flores Pos.
The possibility to set up a Catholic newspaper network in Asia is also a chance to increase its capabilities.
The treatment factors are quite numerous. Land transportation in mountainous Flores is very tough. It takes one week just to travel from Labuan Bajo in the west to Larantuka in the east. Newspaper distribution is very expensive. Using public transport is costly. Having our own distribution is also costly.
Today the Flores Pos is “surrounded” by Pos Kupang’s long distance printing presses in Ruteng (west Flores) and Maumere (east). It is quite a challenge. In Flores, people don’t buy two newspapers in a single day. If they already buy Pos Kupang, obviously they won’t buy the Flores Pos.
Newsprint must also be imported from Java and the shipment cost is quite dear. Another treatment is the oil prices that always increase in Indonesia over the last ten years. It prompts higher inflation every year. Flores is also one of Indonesia’s lowest income areas. The public buying power is limited. They prefer to secure their meals rather than buying a newspaper.
A network of Catholic newspapers in Asia might create a cooperation in the region, benefiting newspapers like the Flores Pos, Dian and Kunang-kunang children magazine in Ende. The Flores Pos also needs a capital injection to buy a new printing press to print long distance both in Maumere and Ruteng. Similar assistances like what Georgia Scott’s are highly needed in Ende.
02 September 2008
Konflik Pilkades Paga
Oleh FRANS OBON
Sempat terjadi protes pada pemilihan kepala desa (Kades) Paga, Kecamatan Paga, Kabupaten Sikka, Flores pada 8 November 2007. Ada tiga calon yakni Frans Seko, Lukas Woge, dan Ambros Reku. Pemenangnya adalah Frans Seko meraih 724 suara, Lukas Woge meraih 686 suara, dan Ambros Reku 353 suara.
Khawatir protes dan ricuh berlanjut pada saat pelantikan, Jumat (29/8) di Kantor Camat Paga, dua peleton polisi dari Polres Sikka, yang dibantu aparat TNI dari Koramil Paga dan Brimob menjaga ketat acara pelantikan. Acara berlangsung aman.
Sebenarnya konflik Pilkades sudah sering terjadi di Flores. Memang skalanya masih kecil. Pilkades Paga terbilang besar karena protes melibatkan massa. Beralasan kalau pelantikan dijaga ketat aparat keamanan sebab khawatir terjadi konflik yang mengarah kepada kekacauan.
Konflik Pilkades, apa yang sebenarnya terjadi? Jika kita mencari akar dari konflik Pilkades di Flores, kita bisa temukan beberapa alasan.
Pertama, kesempatan. Otonomi daerah tidak saja memberi kesempatan kepada elite lokal di tingkat kabupaten, tetapi juga bangkitnya elite baru di pedesaan. Kepala desa jadi jabatan baru yang menjanjikan. Bergesernya peran elite lokal pedesaan lama oleh sistem administrasi pemerintahan Indonesia merdeka, terutama di bawah rejim Orde Baru, menyebabkan peran dan kedudukan kepala desa jadi jauh lebih penting. Elite baru yang diciptakan melalui pendidikan formal merebut kesempatan ini untuk memegang kendali pengaturan administrasi desa. Mengalirnya sebagian besar dana ke pedesaan oleh pemerintah menambah gairah untuk memperebutkan kekuasaan di tingkat pedesaan. Karena kesempatan untuk mendapatkan uang juga semakin terbuka lebar. Hal itu bisa kita lihat dari penyimpangan penggunaan dana di tingkat pedesaan dalam masa reformasi ini cenderung membesar.
Kedua, kepentingan politik. Sebab paling besar dari konflik Pilkades adalah kepentingan politik di tingkat kabupaten baik di tingkat elite pemerintahan maupun kontraktor. Elite perkotaan membangun basis massa politiknya di tingkat pedesaan. Kades dianggap punya pengaruh untuk mendulang suara bagi elite politik perkotaan. Kepentingan ekonomi juga muncul di sini. Dana-dana swakelola yang diserahkan pengerjaannya ke pedesaan, juga menarik minat para kontraktor untuk ikut dukung mendukung calon kepala desa tertentu. Bukan hal baru dan tabu sekarang bahwa praktik politik uang telah pula terjadi di tingkat pemilihan kepala desa. Cara-cara kotor dalam seleksi pemimpin sekarang bukan hanya milik elite perkotaan, tapi juga sudah mempengaruhi sistem seleksi pemimpin di tingkat desa.
Kasus Paga barangkali hanyalah bagian kecil yang tampak ke permukaan dari konflik dalam proses pemilihan kepala desa di Flores. Sesungguhnya proses pemilihan kades juga mencerminkan bersekutunya elite perkotaan dan elite desa untuk membangun jaringan politik bersama.
Flores Pos | Bentara | Pilkades + 2 September 2008
Sempat terjadi protes pada pemilihan kepala desa (Kades) Paga, Kecamatan Paga, Kabupaten Sikka, Flores pada 8 November 2007. Ada tiga calon yakni Frans Seko, Lukas Woge, dan Ambros Reku. Pemenangnya adalah Frans Seko meraih 724 suara, Lukas Woge meraih 686 suara, dan Ambros Reku 353 suara.
Khawatir protes dan ricuh berlanjut pada saat pelantikan, Jumat (29/8) di Kantor Camat Paga, dua peleton polisi dari Polres Sikka, yang dibantu aparat TNI dari Koramil Paga dan Brimob menjaga ketat acara pelantikan. Acara berlangsung aman.
Sebenarnya konflik Pilkades sudah sering terjadi di Flores. Memang skalanya masih kecil. Pilkades Paga terbilang besar karena protes melibatkan massa. Beralasan kalau pelantikan dijaga ketat aparat keamanan sebab khawatir terjadi konflik yang mengarah kepada kekacauan.
Konflik Pilkades, apa yang sebenarnya terjadi? Jika kita mencari akar dari konflik Pilkades di Flores, kita bisa temukan beberapa alasan.
Pertama, kesempatan. Otonomi daerah tidak saja memberi kesempatan kepada elite lokal di tingkat kabupaten, tetapi juga bangkitnya elite baru di pedesaan. Kepala desa jadi jabatan baru yang menjanjikan. Bergesernya peran elite lokal pedesaan lama oleh sistem administrasi pemerintahan Indonesia merdeka, terutama di bawah rejim Orde Baru, menyebabkan peran dan kedudukan kepala desa jadi jauh lebih penting. Elite baru yang diciptakan melalui pendidikan formal merebut kesempatan ini untuk memegang kendali pengaturan administrasi desa. Mengalirnya sebagian besar dana ke pedesaan oleh pemerintah menambah gairah untuk memperebutkan kekuasaan di tingkat pedesaan. Karena kesempatan untuk mendapatkan uang juga semakin terbuka lebar. Hal itu bisa kita lihat dari penyimpangan penggunaan dana di tingkat pedesaan dalam masa reformasi ini cenderung membesar.
Kedua, kepentingan politik. Sebab paling besar dari konflik Pilkades adalah kepentingan politik di tingkat kabupaten baik di tingkat elite pemerintahan maupun kontraktor. Elite perkotaan membangun basis massa politiknya di tingkat pedesaan. Kades dianggap punya pengaruh untuk mendulang suara bagi elite politik perkotaan. Kepentingan ekonomi juga muncul di sini. Dana-dana swakelola yang diserahkan pengerjaannya ke pedesaan, juga menarik minat para kontraktor untuk ikut dukung mendukung calon kepala desa tertentu. Bukan hal baru dan tabu sekarang bahwa praktik politik uang telah pula terjadi di tingkat pemilihan kepala desa. Cara-cara kotor dalam seleksi pemimpin sekarang bukan hanya milik elite perkotaan, tapi juga sudah mempengaruhi sistem seleksi pemimpin di tingkat desa.
Kasus Paga barangkali hanyalah bagian kecil yang tampak ke permukaan dari konflik dalam proses pemilihan kepala desa di Flores. Sesungguhnya proses pemilihan kades juga mencerminkan bersekutunya elite perkotaan dan elite desa untuk membangun jaringan politik bersama.
Flores Pos | Bentara | Pilkades + 2 September 2008
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