For the 23 years prior to its banning on June 21, 1994, Tempo magazine was Indonesias most important news weekly, and its chief editor, Goenawan Mohamad, one of Indonesias leading poetsand intellectuals. Yet despite its influence, the history of tempo magazine is not widely known. All aspects of tempos history, including its roots in the literary and culture milieu of the 1960s, its economic organization and management, its internal culture and system of deciding whats news, and its strategies for survival within a repressive press system, provide a window into the political and culture history of Indonesias New Order. Tempo magazine occupied an ambiguous position in Soehartos Indonesia, and Wars Whitin: The Story of Tempo, an Independent Magazine in Soehartos Indonesia explores these contradictions and paradoxes. Clearly a product of the New Order, Tempo nevertheless presented independent points of view, often at considerable risk. The story of how Tempo survived 23 years of autocratic rule sheds light not only on the culture and politics pf modern Indonesia, but also on broader questions concerning the role of press in developing countries and the kinds of negotiation that must go on for an essentially democrative institution to exist in an authoritarian space. Like the epic battles depicted in the Hindu-Javanese version of the Mahabharata, Tempos Struggles against the authoritarian Soeharto regime can be understood as a kind of war within the New Order.
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