Radio Australia Today Editorial

A Radio Australia veteran still going strong

30 November 2009

In this era when people stick at their jobs for five years or less, Hidayat Djajamihardja’s career has been extraordinary.

Hidayat hasd been working with Radio Australia for 43 years. He started working for us in Jakarta in 1966. He tells of how in those days he had to clear his copy with an Indonesian Government censor, and that was the just the start of his hurdles. Today when we file copy, we do it over the internet or on the phone, but back then he had to either send it using morse code if it was just copy or, if it included a piece of audio, he would go to the airport and try to get one of the out-going passengers to take it to Singapore for the next stage in the transmission.

Wow. I remember as a young reporter being frustrated by the lack of public phones in western Sydney. I thought I had difficulties, but obviously Hidayat Djajamihardja would have luxuriated in what I thought at the time were real problems.

As we approach Radio Australia’s 70th birthday, all of us here reflect on the work of people like Hidayat. He was there when Indonesian President Sukarno was overthrown, working at that time with Philip Koch, the journalist that was the basis of the character that Mel Gibson played in the film The Year of Living Dangerously. That book and film is notable for the young local journalist Billy Kwan (played by Linda Hunt in the film). Some say that Billy was based on Hidayat, a claim that he embarrassedly plays down, claiming instead that Billy was a composite of several Indonesian journalists.

Hidayat is a man who has been not at all jaded by his 43 years in the office. He is obviously thrilled to be telling stories on a day-to-day basis, and he gives out the feeling that every day is like his first at Radio Australia.

It’s a pleasure to be working with the man. And I’m glad he stayed working with RA long enough for me, a relative newcomer, to meet and work with him. Hidayat represents what Radio Australia is all about: enthusiasm, connection, smarts and integrity. Being hilarious and having a rich baritone doesn’t hurt either.

- Phil Kafcaloudes