Disconnect

BALI – At the height of the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping rampage, the government took pains to emphasize that Sulu and Basilan, where the mostly foreign hostages had been taken, were far from Manila and were not tourist destinations.

The attempt at damage control was largely futile; bookings were canceled and tourists stayed away from the entire country for many months. People in the tourism industry complained that no marketing blitz could counteract the daily bombardment of bad news in both the foreign and domestic press about the "southern Philippines."

It’s not the first time that the press has been hit for creating economic problems or hindering development through negative, generalized or sensationalized reporting. You hear such complaints often in the Philippines; businessmen in particular lament that there is too much focus on bad news.

The standard response of journalists is that we are merely messengers, the bearers of bad news. Some of us do listen to such complaints and try to balance bad news with the good. The balancing act is a delicate one. How much of the terror threat, for example, is real or merely media hype?

An American military officer who has been in Iraq told me that even the situation in that country is not as bad as pictured by mass media. People will sneer that this viewpoint can be expected of a US military officer. On the other hand, is there a surefire guarantee of fairness and accuracy of reporting on Iraq?

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Now I’m in Bali, where the governments of Indonesia and Norway are co-sponsoring a Global Inter-Media Dialogue this weekend. The invitation letter jointly signed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg says the dialogue aims "to bridge gaps between different religions, cultures and people" as well as promote freedom of expression and greater tolerance.

"The recent cartoon controversy reminded us not only of how small our world has become, but also of the powerful impact the media has on the world’s communities," the letter said, referring to the firestorm set off in the Muslim world by a Danish newspaper’s publication of a dozen cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Perhaps it’s mere coincidence that the dialogue is being held just days before the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

But it’s doubtful that the choice of Bali for the venue had nothing to do with the terrorist problem.

After the nightclub bombings here in 2002 that killed 202 people, many of them Australian tourists, Bali was Indonesia’s Paradise Lost, with its main industry, tourism, in tatters. Indonesians soon launched an aggressive campaign to lure back visitors to the island, anchored on the message that lightning does not strike twice – the Balinese were making sure of that.

Unfortunately for this beautiful island, lightning did strike a second time. As in the first time, it was again staged by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI); again it targeted night spots, and again foreigners were among the victims.

What’s Bali’s message to visitors this time?

I must confess to succumbing to the media hype – if hype is all it is – about the high threat level on this island. Reserving a room at the Sheraton Laguna Nusa Dua (now the Laguna Resort and Spa), I picked one that I hoped was far from the main entrance, just in case there’s a car bomb attack especially while President SBY is here.

The recent amnesty given to two convicted Bali bombers plus the reduced sentence for JI’s spiritual leader have not helped improve public perceptions of the security risks here.

Is it just hype? Who can guarantee that lightning will not strike a third time? Is there a disconnect between reporting and reality?

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"Disconnect" is how Pakistan’s ambassador to Manila, Muhammad Naeem Khan, describes the situation in his country and how it is perceived in many parts of the world.

Mention Pakistan these days and you think of the London bombing suspects. We think of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, convicted mastermind of the first bomb attack on the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Yousef eluded capture in Manila but was later arrested in Pakistan. Mention Pakistan and you think of Osama bin Laden, believed to be hiding in the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Is Pakistan simply suffering from a media-generated bad rap?

Ambassador Khan, on the eve of my departure for Bali, told me that the trail of the world’s most wanted terrorist has gone completely cold. If Bin Laden is truly hiding in that inhospitable terrain, he can’t be on the Pakistani side of the border, Khan said, because his country’s intelligence agents tend to nab their targets, the agents are in those mountains, and there’s no sign of either Bin Laden or his top lieutenant who wants Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf dead.

For nearly two years now Pakistan has stationed 88,000 troops along its 2,400-kilometer border with Afghanistan. The troops speak Pashtun, the language on both sides of the border, and are embedded in the communities there. Yet they have seen no sign of Bin Laden.

Facing the Arabian Sea, surrounded by India, China, Iran and landlocked Afghanistan, Pakistan is a natural transit point for people from several major regions of the world. The country is home to three million Afghan refugees. Pakistan has been trying to get rid of foreign troublemakers, kicking out aliens from religious schools or madrassahs, banning groups linked to terrorism and freezing their assets, and monitoring the members’ movements so they will not set up another organization under a different name.

It is in the interest of Pakistan to see a stable Afghanistan, Khan stressed. Islamabad has donated $240 million to its neighbor and is assisting in Afghan capacity-building following the fall of the Taliban. Both US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have separately rang up Musharraf in recent months to personally thank him for his country’s cooperation in the war on terror.

So how come Pakistan is still perceived as a terrorist haven? Khan wants to know. The terror problem has overshadowed the good news from Pakistan: an economic growth rate of 8.4 percent, speedy gains in privatization, more government participation for women, and a market so ready for globalization it is negotiating free trade agreements with several countries including China. Khan is awaiting Manila’s response to his government’s free trade proposal.

So terrorists are passing through Pakistan. But many of them are getting caught, Khan said.

Are we in the media to blame for negative public perceptions of Pakistan? Or of Bali? Or the Philippines? We’re ready to listen.