At the Gauteng African National Congresss election of its chair last weekend, the outgoing premier, Tokyo Sexwale, volubly attacked the press for its coverage of the premiership race, singling out a reporter from this newspaper with the charge that he had allowed himself to be used by politicians.
The journalists crime was that he had reported that Mathole Motshekga was the favourite to win the race and had the support of the overwhelming majority of branches who were dismayed by the ANC leaderships refusal to allow a simple democratic procedure to prevail.
Unfortunately for Sexwale our reporter had the story exactly right.
He had committed the seemingly unpardonable error of doing his homework. Instead of accepting bland statements issued to this paper over the serious divisions within the ANC in the province, he went into the townships and spoke to ordinary members, gauging the feelings of the branches and tirelessly piecing together the real story.
Sexwale is not alone. It is becoming increasingly common for politicians to have a go at the media. Of course, its not very hard and beats the hell out of having to find something intelligent to say. Who can blame them when even the media attacks the media and when some of the media even apologise for being in the media?
But a nasty innuendo has crept in about hidden agendas. There are racial generalisations, claims of unpatriotic behaviour, bizarre calls to emulate John Vorster by instituting commissions of enquiry into Eurocentrism, and clichd slogans that we resent most because they throw us into the company of newspapers whose philosophies and style of journalism are at fundamental variance with our own.
These attacks are mostly crude and uninformed. We are more concerned when someone like President Nelson Mandela joins in and lashes out at the press, as he did on Wednesday, for aiding elements behind the mine violence in North-West Province. It is difficult to understand where such charges arise.
Even if there were some journalists responsible for such calumny, it was a blanket condemnation that did not admit that some newspapers, including our own, sent reporters into that murky situation to unravel what was going on and emerged with stories extremely critical of the forces behind the violence.
We dont expect to be singled out for praise, but nor do we accept the trend in which leaders publicly single out our reporters for opprobrium. This is naked intimidation. It will only strengthen our determination to question, criticise and attempt to get at the truth. That is our professional duty and our constitutional right.
There are many politicians, including the new chair of the ANC in Gauteng, Motshekga, who have made it clear that they understand that duty and respect that right. Our only guarantee is that we will be fair. And that is all we expect in return.
Smoking out Asias miracle
Forest fires can be a natural phenomenon that may even contribute to the life cycle of the land. But not in Indonesia, where huge tracts of land are in flames entirely due to reckless human behaviour. All over Southeast Asia the haze it causes, combined with other forms of pollution, is creating a cocktail of noxious smog. And all over Southeast Asia an equally poisonous mix of commercial greed and lax controls is leading towards what may become an even greater environmental disaster.
Indonesia is not the only culprit, but under the Suharto regime it presents a particularly instructive lesson in the downside of economic growth, Asian-style. Three months ago Indonesias Minister of the Environment spoke emphatically at the United Nations Earth Summit in favour of an international treaty to regulate the worlds forests. One month ago President Suharto made a personal visit to Borneo to open a new pulp mill in East Kalimantan owned by one of his closest associates.
The mismatch between these two initiatives is painfully obvious and the biggest forest fires are the ones now burning in Indonesian Borneo. Nor is this the first disaster of its kind. From autumn 1982 to summer 1983, fire consumed more than 8,6- million acres of rainforest in East Kalimantan, enveloping almost all of Borneo in a pall of smoke. This, too, was blamed on the shifting El Nio Pacific current, but the government in Jakarta swore that new laws against deforestation would ensure that it never happened again. The laws have never been properly enforced, and the logging companies have grown from a handful to more than a hundred with friends in high places.
Logging to clear land for pulp plantations as well as to extract existing timber has depleted forests in many other Asian countries. They have been reduced to fragments in Thailand, and are disappearing fast in Cambodia, Laos and Burma. China has despoiled large tracts of Tibetan forests and in China proper the pressure has been increased by rising consumer demand for furniture and fuel.
The smog now affecting urban centres among Indonesias neighbours is much worse than in previous years of forest fires because it combines with other forms of atmospheric pollution particularly from vehicle exhausts which are also on the increase. It is a timely warning that nature cannot be tampered with indefinitely. But the lesson from Indonesia is that pious intentions are no match for the predatory imperatives of commerce and corruption. When the Asian miracle has faded, who will replant Asias forests?