Tempo (E) Launches AsiaViews
Picking up a copy of Tempo’s English edition the other week I was happy to note it had considerably more heft than usual. Over 84 pages I guessed and 88 as it turned out. A few weeks before it had racked up a similar number of pages with a healthy advertorial from Singapore’s thriving, but Bangkok threatened, Planet Medica. Usually Tempo (E) limps in with some 58 pages or so, its long suffering parents and believers having cut down the extent from the 84 pages as was, boosting the advertisement to editorial ratio from 7% to a massive 11%. Don’t complain, editorially that is still excellent value compared to most publications where the ratio is more like 50:50 and you have to hunt down the prose among the ads. And this time the extra heft was a lot more meaningful than a nice fat “advertorial”. It came in the form of a 28-page editorial insert entitled “AsiaViews”, put together by Tempo (E) with writers from various associated Asian publications Malaysian Business, Today (Singapore) and NewsBreak (Philippines) and contributions from Asashi Shimbun, The Irrawady, Korea Times, Taipei Times and Asia Age along with financial support from the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
Now why on earth should this middleaged expat give a tinker’s Granny that an obscure Asian English-language magazine had racked up a few extra pages? And why should I even think of bothering to share that with you?
Well, if you hadn’t noticed the demographic and economic centre of gravity has shifted perceptibly toward Asia, and more specifically to what used to be called the Far East. Western media is now full to overflowing with comment on China’s economic rise and if this can be accommodated peacefully. Next, the prose flows on to India as an economic and geo-political balance to China. Little if any comment is dedicated to the pivotal nature of SE Asia in any of this. In fact ASEAN, the heart of this pivot has if anything been downgraded in importance. East Asia may be a flashpoint (Korea/Taiwan) but the prize, the blushing belle for all thrusting geopolitical suitors, be they Oriental or Occidental are the ASEAN countries, and the beating heart of ASEAN will always be Indonesia. Should you be in any doubt of that, just recall the discussions in Java in 1945 as to what constituted an independent Indonesia. It was Majapahit plus, all the original five ASEAN countries, less Thailand.
-.)*(Indonesia is truly a nation in waiting. It only has to play its hand half well and within the next 20 years or so it could claim its place at the top table of nations. If Indonesia manages more or less what Thailand has done in the past 40 years (although PM Thaksin Shinawatra looks like undoing a lot of the good work) rather than following the depressing example of the Philippines, Indonesia (and with it ASEAN) will really be on the map. Indonesia certainly has the wealth and the talent to do so (in trumps, if the country has the wit to invest in its young people), but can it produce the leaders of the calibre it needs, as opposed to “strong men”, who can act in concert to make it happen? Or, will the same old vested interests manage to stultify and abort the process?
Today we are all democrats. The Great and the Good, gangsters, oligarchs, bureaucrats, robber barons and autocrats all. All believe in democracy and open markets, even a free press and judiciary. That is if the former will follow market forces, owned or controlled by the powers that be, and the latter are obedient appointees or simply for sale to the highest bidder. That’s market forces to the gangster and who’s to say he’s wrong?
Long before there was a free press in Indonesia Tempo was beating the marches of the possible. Today, in a dumbed down and Fox News world Tempo can be numbered among the very few media anywhere that can be considered significant, combining large readership with high ethical and journalistic standards. With the departure of the Suharto regime the publication has deservedly thrived, although the time lag in judicial reform somewhat strangely threatens rather than protects informed comment. Several years ago Tempo launched a weekly English language edition, which for all those who do not read Indonesian is probably the best way to keep abreast of what is going on in the country. In so doing the publishers of Tempo provided a real service and are to be commended on what could hardly be called a license to print money. However, those of you who know anything about publishing will know that a newsweekly is the aristocrat of the print world, in that it may provide timely news and comment with a frequency that can bring financial success and influence, if you get it right. Get it wrong and you have the glory and a lot of big bills. In order to flourish a weekly needs a distinct personality, all its own. Thus Tempo (E) can only be a poor relation of Tempo itself, until it develops a larger function of its own (you try translating someone else’s prose week after week and see how easy it is to be an exciting read....).
Journalistically the world is littered with well meaning attempts to bring together comment from various of the world’s leading newspapers. Seldom if ever do they work and even less so now we can go online. The fact is, there really are not enough of us interested in the flat translated prose of what the editors responsible think we are interested in to make a financial go of it. No one it seems has really thought through who actually would read this sort of stuff.
And yet in Asia we have a slew of Western media owners operating in the English language who are not exactly known for their altruism. Make no mistake about it, they are here for the money. As yet there is not one Asian media owner operating regionally. Taking print media alone we have Asian editions of the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Economist, Forbes, Fortune, International Herald Tribune, NewsWeek and Time. Then there are God knows how many franchised foreign language editions of these same media plus all the Western consumer mags with Hearst and Conde Nast leading the charge.
Homegrown Asian media, however powerful they may be locally, are essentially restricted to their own patch. Asians do not read each other’s media. It was not always so. Once upon a time, not so long ago, there were regional publications in the English language which were read by Asians and expatriates, they were pretty successful too, appealing to readers with high job profile and income. Where are they now? Gone alas. Done to death by ineptitude or quietly throttled by their new Western owners. Consider, Asia Magazine, a weekly colour supplement put into all the major English language Sunday newspapers in Asia since the 60’s with a prime circulation of some 700,000, and a huge unrealised potential, editorially and financially. It lingered on for ages until finally done to death by the Straits Times who like a wicked uncle never wanted it to succeed. Look at the Far Eastern Economic Review, which until Dow Jones managed to obtain a controlling interest and who shamefully emasculated it, was a genuine and informed expression of an Asian viewpoint. Now it limps on, a shadow of its former self as a sorry Asian version of Foreign Affairs lite. Then there was AsiaWeek. Pretty lightweight and prone to a dated sub-continental “Asianism” as it was, nontheless a genuine attempt by its owners to express an Asian viewpoint. Bought out by Time Warner and pretty soon quietly smothered. Asian Business, from the Straits Times Group had an existence for a few lacklustre decades as a controlled circulation business publication but never ever caught fire and killed off a few years ago. A while back Asia Inc came roaring out of Thailand, sparked for a moment, then flamed to be followed by an employee buy out and now I don’t even know it it still exists, I never see it around.
-.)*(
In her introductory remarks Tempo (E)’s editor remarks that here and there people still lament the lack of a publication that features news and views of the region, from Asians and by Asians and the domination of the Western media and its views. She also very rightly points out that by and large Asians do not talk to or know other Asians. I think she understates it. There is a huge constituency out there who are increasingly well educated and fluent in English who need to know about Asia in relationship to other Asian countries and to the rest of the world. With all their resources the major Western media owners can only penetrate so far. The continent awaits an Asian media owner with the wit, the patience and the integrity to address the challenge (and add to that a reasonably deep pocket).
If the Far Eastern Economic Review could grow up like topsy from its humble beginnings as a newsletter in Shanghai in 1946 to become as good as it was in its pre-Dow Jones glory days, why should not Tempo with its admirable pedigree do any less, if it has a mind to? And that is the point, a great weekly magazine is 20 years in the making and few do actually make it. But the prize for all those who are associated with those that do is huge. Just look at The Spectator and The Economist and how long they’ve been around, each strong characters in their quirky way.
Tempo(E)’s editor quite rightly points out that AsiaViews is starting out from humble beginnings and with limited resources, but promises well-written and insightful articles that reflect the essence and diversity of Asian thinking. That is already a good start. But let us hope that we are seeing the birth of something larger, who knows? If a course can be steered between the Scylla of the ASEAN establishment and the Chrybadis of too many cooks cum shareholders with hands in the pot, perhaps we are in at the birth of Tempo (E) mophing into a great Asian weekly in its own right? At any rate, go check it out for yourselves and buy a copy of Tempo (E)’s first issue of each month. If nothing else, welcome some half decent journalism from a refreshing new direction. God know’s we could use it.
ParacelsusAsia
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