Indonesia: Forgotten region finds voice

Dressed in a traditional costume of white and yellow and with a sharp sword at his hip, the man advanced threateningly and yelled: "Who are you, who dares to come here when we are waiting for honoured guests? If you are the guests we are waiting for, then you are welcome to enter. But if not, then prepare to die because we are ready to do battle with you."

These were the dramatic opening words that greeted the small group from Jakarta on 19 February, led by Dutch Ambassador Dr Nikolaos van Dam, who had travelled to Sumba to witness the official launch of Radio Gogali, the first radio station in Central Sumba. After an exchange of greetings in the local language, the Ambassador and the other visitors were presented with hand-woven cloth, a speciality of Sumba, and invited to join the ceremony. This culminated in the Ambassador becoming the first foreigner ever to be conferred with the title of Umbu, making him an honorary citizen of Central Sumba, and the killing of a water buffalo whose blood seeping into the ground symbolised the local population's acceptance of the radio station as part the local community.

Although just a one-hour flight from Bali, the picturesque island of Sumba lags far behind its much better known neighbour in terms of development. While Bali boasts sound infrastructure, a tourism-driven economy and a vibrant media, on Sumba the picture is very different. Here, poverty levels are well above the national average and very few homes have electricity. Almost 60% of children drop out before finishing primary school, and literacy rates are consequently low. Access to fresh water is the exception rather than the norm, and the absence of any local media in the west of the island means that information dissemination has until now been largely limited to word of mouth.

Perhaps not surprising then that, when MDLF and its Indonesian partners, the Indonesian Association for Media Development (PPMN) and radio news agency KBR68H, visited Central Sumba in July 2008 with a view to helping the local community to set up a radio station, the idea was greeted with great enthusiasm. "Actually, this had long been a dream for us," acknowledged Deby Rambu Kasuatu, an NGO activist. She, together with fellow NGO representatives and other local leaders, responded quickly. They soon formed an association to run the new station, which is named after a bird native to the area, found a location for it and identified staff to run the radio.

PPMN and KBR68H, meanwhile, procured equipment and arranged for its transport to Sumba and its installation. This included solar panels to partially power the station and reduce its dependence on the unreliable grid supply of electricity. They also provided the Radio Gogali team with intensive training in all aspects of radio station management and broadcasting. Thanks to the drive and determination of all of those involved, within five months of the initial visit by the Jakarta team, Radio Gogali was up and running. For the first time, the population of Central Sumba could hear local and national news, as well as listen to talk shows and popular songs, on their own community radio station.

In an economically deprived part of the country such as Sumba, a radio station has enormous potential to play a positive role in the area's development, and this is what drives this radio building programme. As PPMN Programme Manager, Eni Mulia, explains: "We know that Central Sumba has very high rates of illiteracy, while radio is a very flexible medium for conveying messages. We see that Radio Gogali therefore offers a chance for the people of Central Sumba to fight their way out of poverty and underdevelopment."

Expectations for the radio station at the local level are equally high. The head of the health and social affairs department for Central Sumba, Bintang Sihombing, has been quick to see the possibilities and is working with Radio Gogali on plans for a regular talk show to discuss basic health issues. Top of her agenda is encouraging some changes in traditional childbirth practices that have resulted in an unusually high rate of deaths of women: "Until now we had to go house to house to talk about these things, but with the radio we can reach so many more people." For station founder Deby, Radio Gogali also offers important opportunities for women to emerge as leaders in an otherwise male-dominated society.

In a largely rural island, programmes about agriculture were from the outset regarded as likely to be popular with listeners, but no one at Radio Gogali had anticipated how quickly the station would be able to demonstrate its value to local farmers. Animals such as horses, pigs and cows are highly prized in Sumba, and are used in a variety of traditional ceremonies as well as for food and transport. But organised gangs of animal thieves have for some time caused major hardship to poor farming communities that can ill afford to lose any of their precious livestock.

So, when a listener sent a text message to the radio station in early February with news that thieves had stolen some horses from a nearby village, the presenter was quick to act. As well as announcing the details of where the animals had been taken from, the presenter urged listeners to converge on the area and block off the roads leading out of the village. Many people heeded the call and, soon afterwards, five thieves had been caught red-handed with the animals they had stolen.

As with all of the more than two dozen radio stations that KBR68H and PPMN have set up or rebuilt over the past several years across Indonesia, there will be a steep learning curve for the Radio Gogali team and many challenges ahead. But the station's rapid progress to date bodes well for its future, and evidence of its positive impact such as the arrest of the animal thieves will, it is hoped, spur the Radio Gogali team to continue to develop their skills so that the station can fulfil the public service role it has set for itself.

The setting up of radio stations in remote parts of Indonesia is a programme that MDLF and the Dutch government are supporting, in cooperation with Indonesian radio news agency KBR68H and media development NGO, PPMN, to extend information access to some of the archipelago's most isolated areas.