http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 02 Feb 2009 IP address: 128.135.12.12 Modern Asian Studies 40, 4 (2006) pp. 993–1052. C  2006 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S0026749X06002307 Printed in the United Kingdom Strong and weak media? On the Representation of ‘Terorisme’ in Contemporary Indonesia RICHARD FOX The University of Chicago Divinity School It is as if bombings have become a trend in Indonesian society. - Tempo Interaktif, 25 December 2000. 1 To put it crudely: because the languages of Third World societies – including, of course, the societies that social anthropologists have traditionally studied – are ‘weaker’ in relation to Western languages (and today, especially to English), they are more likely to submit to forcible transformation in the translation process than the other way around. Talal Asad (1986: 157–8) According to police records, there have been more than seventy bombings in Indonesia since 1998. 2 Most recently, these have included high-profile attacks both in the Balinese tourist center of Kuta and at the American-owned JW Marriott hotel in the capital city of Jakarta. In addition to the many smaller-scale bombings that have occurred sporadically in previous years across the archipelago, there have also been several comparatively spectacular bombings, including one at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta and another in the parking garage of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, not to mention the spate of some twenty 1 The original passage from Tempo reads, ‘Peristiwa peledakan bom seolah menjadi trend di masyarakat Indonesia’ (Tempo 2000a). 2 The police records - which list 66 bombings - were cited in an article published by the Jakarta Post on 06 Nov 2002 ( Jakarta Post 2002). There have been at least five serious bombings since then. However, figures given in a report (2001) from the Indonesian human rights advocacy group Kontras (The Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence) put the number much higher. A more recent article posted on Laksamana.net lists nine additional bombings since 12 Oct. 2002, with the following qualification: ‘The list is by no means complete, as dozens of explosions occurred over the past three years in the Maluku islands and Central Sulawesi amid deadly religious clashes’ (2003). 0026–749X/06/$7.50+$0.10 993