Press Review: Indonesia

So what, who cares? That would not be an altogether inaccurate summary of the Indonesian media's reaction to last Thursday's conviction of the Indonesian Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on conspiracy charges relating to the 2002 Bali bombing.

All the mainstream press gave the court decision and 30-month sentence prominent coverage on Friday's news pages. Most newspapers focused on the Australian and American public disappointment at the light punishment, and the defendant's rejection of the whole judicial process as haram, or against Islamic principles.

The headline in Media Indonesia, was typical. "Sentenced to two years and six months: Ba'asyir feels cruelly picked on". "This sentence seems cruel," it quoted the 66-year-old militant as saying. "Because of that, I refuse to accept this judgment."

But that, apart from some articles reporting Jakarta's defence of the verdict against foreign criticism, is where the coverage started to trickle off. That reflects Indonesia's fatigue with the three-year Ba'asyir saga and the matter being eclipsed by a 29% fuel-price hike and a territorial dispute with neighbouring Malaysia.

The one editorial was in the Jakarta Post, Indonesia's leading English-language daily. It said the trial's outcome "is likely to remain a topic of heated contention for a long time to come".

That is because a "divide seems to exist ... among Indonesians, with those who consider Thursday's court verdict lenient, fearing that it might encourage more acts of violence in the future, pitted against those who call the verdict unfair and unfounded", it said. "After all, the court's reliance on sworn testimony based on an overheard conversation appears weak to say the least."

In an opinion piece in Republika, an Islamic-leaning daily, Ade Armando described the trial as a "joke" and the "worst sort of reality show". "The biggest issue [emerging from the trial] is the suppression of human rights in this country by the nation's judges," he said.

"I will only remind you of one thing: this time the victim was Ba'asyir, but in the future your family or your loved ones could experience a similar fate."