huridocs-tech Indonesia: The Web as a Weapon

Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network
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## author     : bala@malaysia.net
## date       : 29.03.99
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Indonesia: The Web as a Weapon By Tedjabayu Basuki

CAPABLE OF cutting through time and space, the Internet
offers a means of communication not previously dreamed of.
It has created important new possibilities as it shrinks
distances and provides an astounding volume and variety of
information to those who have computer access. One result of
these is the acceleration of the development of solidarity
networks among peoples, regions, and countries. In
Indonesia, it has even managed to help topple a strongman
who, until his unscheduled resignation in May 1998, had been
Asia's longest reigning postwar ruler. To Indonesia's powers
that be, controlling the Internet has become close to being
an obsession.

But there seems to be no controlling the medium, which has
thwarted people who had succeeded in repressing all sorts of
free expression for more than three decades.

Try as it might, the state apparatus seems to be unable to
anticipate and contain the extremely speedy development of
the Internet, which in Indonesia is still free of
censorship. Thus, while activists belonging to the "illegal"
faction of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
may be on the run from authorities, they are free to convey
their propaganda on the Web, and even insult the head of the
armed forces and the President if they feel like it.

Indeed, there is as yet no match for the speed and capacity
of the Internet to disseminate information and views, making
it a medium that is greatly superior to all others for that
purpose. Although Indonesians are still shackled by
repressive regulations and state control such as the
Anti-Subversion Law, a small piece of equipment combined
with a telephone cable has enabled them to speak their minds
without much fear of official retribution. They can travel
throughout the country and even beyond its borders without
the state being able hold them down. Many have already
stumbled on a number of simple to use but sophisticated
tools such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) that protect
Internet users from state censorship. Further safeguards are
available through the anonymity offered by Hotmail, Yahoo
and Iname, among others. Of course, it has been a bonus that
there is a scarcity of people among the security forces and
intelligence service who are Internet savvy.

The Net-ting of Indonesia

The truth is that Indonesian authorities, like their
counterparts in other countries, simply could not have
imagined that a piece of ordinary equipment called the
computer would produce something like the Net, and that this
would be too powerful for them to control. After all, when
data communication was first used in Indonesia, it was by
Bank Indonesia. This was in the mid-1970s; even uber-geek
god Bill Gates of Microsoft still walked among mortals then.
The Indonesian government itself later developed
inter-computer communications for state universities aimed
at fulfilling administrative needs with respect to
curriculum development.

But then the arrival of PC clones and the subsequent
proliferation of pirated computer programs enabled students
and other computer buffs to develop their creativity in the
realms of both software and hardware. This accelerated the
Indonesian middle class's ability to absorb new advances in
the computer field and made Indonesia one of the leading
countries with respect to PC usage.

Indosat, a state company that manages satellite
communications, soon introduced a global data communication
service, and provided packet switching in the form of leased
line and dial-up services. But these services did not
attract many clients because of their high cost as well as a
slowpoke data transfer speed of just 2,400 bps for a leased
line.

Then came Lintasarta, a joint venture company (comprising
Indosat and the state-owned Bank Indonesia) that opened up
new access through Internet networks. Through a joint
venture with SprintNet USA, data communications usersóthen
still limited to big and medium sized businesses that often
used US-based Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as
America On Line and Compuserveówere able to reduce their
communication costs because they no longer had to pay for
long distance calls and could instead make local calls.

May 1995 witnessed the emergence of Radnet, the first ISP in
Indonesia, followed several months later by IndoInternet, a
joint venture company between the government-owned company
PT Indosat and investors from the private sector. After that
dozens of other ISPs set up shop, primarily in Jakarta and
Bandung. The government's own ambitious project to open
Internet access throughout Indonesia was realized when, in
1996, the Indonesia Postal Service agency decided to expand
its business by opening ISPs in every provincial capital. It
is no exaggeration to say that 1996 was the year cyberspace
routes opened up for Indonesian society, or at least for the
middle class, just one year after Time magazine proclaimed
1995 as the "Year of the Internet."

By 1998, ISP subscribers in Indonesia were already some
100,000 in number. Many of these subscribers belonged to the
middle class (a term that is not really appropriate to use
because in Indonesia it refers more to financial worth),
although there were also some members of that small stratum
of society known as the upper class, which includes both
business people and bureaucrats. Students were also among
the most avid Netizens by then, as were non-government
organizations (NGOs).

An interesting development has been the emergence of
Internet 'shops' in big cities. These are usually cafes or
Telecommunication Centers that are equipped with computers
with Internet access. In university towns these cafes are
extremely popular among students because of the low
costóaround Rp. 2,000 per hour (prior to the economic
slump).

It is from these sites that many activists and students are
able to receive news about events that are not fully
reported in the mainstream media. Because every cafe also
provides a printer for hire, users are able to obtain hard
copies of the material. With a speed that is hard to
estimate, printouts of alternative news are then distributed
down to the grassroots.

Subversion in Cyberspace

It is hard to pinpoint just when it was that the Web began
to be transformed into a weapon of dissent in Indonesia, but
it is clear that Indonesian students lucky enough to study
abroad had discovered its many uses earlier than their
compatriots at home. Many of these students overseas at
first began using the Net to conduct academic discussions
through online conferences they created as well as through
listservs or mailing lists. Student networks soon sprang up,
such as IndozNet for those studying in Australia, ISNet for
Muslim students and ParokiNet for the Roman Catholics. But
it did not take them long to realize that cyberspace also
afforded them the opportunity to talk about topics
considered taboo back home, such as human rights abuses and
the repressive policies of the Indonesian government.

Then there was also John McDougall, a former staff member at
the US Embassy in Jakarta, who had begun an information
company in 1984. McDougall's firm specialized in research
findings and quality articles from the Indonesian media.
While he sold these commercially, McDougall also
disseminated the data he compiled to various newsgroups and
Internet conferences. He encountered such enthusiastic
response that in 1990, he set up a free mailing list that
subsequently became known throughout the world as "Apakabar
(How do you do)."

Apakabar offered a wide range of views, from the radical to
the moderate, from pro-democracy activists to intelligence
officers masquerading as Netizens. These state agents were
supposed to counter any negative information about the
regime, and they did their job using both polite and coarse
language. But the genuine Apakabar aficionados were almost
always able to spot which ones were bogus Netizens, and
argued against the disinformation to such good effect that
most of the latter soon fell silent. Apparently, only a few
of these pro-government militants were able to stand using
such a democratic -- and at times approaching anarchic --
medium.

This mailing list subsequently played a central role in
spreading up-to-date information about Indonesia. It is also
likely to have been an important factor in accelerating
Indonesian society's awareness of the need to re-evaluate
its values. Apakabar had become a site for extremely open
and democratic debates on Indonesia, helped no doubt by
McDougall's willingness to allow anonymity to any Apakabar
user who requested it. In the end, the US-based Apakabar's
success inspired a number of groups in Indonesia to spread
ideas and democratic ideals through mailing lists, as this
was safer than using the print media that had all sorts of
restrictions.

While all these were going on, Indonesian NGOs were also
busy discovering the Web. Probably the first NGO to obtain
access to the Internet was Wahana Lingkungan Hidup (WALHI),
actually a forum for various environmental groups, that in
1989 got a link-up with an ISP in Europe. Sadly, a lack of
human resources meant that this access was not used to full
effect.

It took some more years before Indonesian advocacy NGOs
began tapping the power of the Net. In 1990, the LBH (Legal
Aid Institute) obtained Internet access and started to post
reports about the human rights situation in Indonesia on
Apakabar. But it was not until five years later, when the

group posted an Urgent Action (UA) on Apakabar, that
cyberspace was finally recognized as a real battleground
between the pro-democracy activists and the supporters of
the Suharto rule. The UA, consisting of only three short
sentences, was a protest against the murder of a woman labor
activist who had been leading a workers' strike in East
Java; the military was the suspected killer.

In less than six hours after the UA was posted, the fax
machines in the Office of the President, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense and Security
were jammed with hundreds of sheets of protest from around
the world. This event dramatically changed Marsinah, a young
and unknown village girl from East Java, into a workers'
heroine known worldwide. It also sparked an NGO-instigated
online information war against one of the harshest
militaristic regimes in the world.

By that time, though, the Internet was already hosting
Websites and listservs run by Indonesian journalists and
academics who were increasingly chafing under the state's
repression of mainstream media. This intensified after the
banning of three leading magazines Tempo, DeTIK and Editor
in June 1994.

Fearing the same would happen to them, the rest of
Indonesia's local publications practically surrendered to
the authorities.  But ex-Tempo staffers and its management
decided to go online and developed the "Tempo Interaktif."
This was most probably the first step in the use of the
Internet as a tool of dissent by journalists who felt
oppressed by the Suharto regime.  Student activists
downloaded the contents of Tempo Interaktif to make hard
copies, which were then sold on campuses and among NGOs.

People thirsty for knowledge regarding what was really going
on in Indonesia began flocking to the Web. This rise in
interest was accommodated by the emergence of the likes of
SiaR, MateBEAN, MeunaSAH, MamberaMO, KDPNet and AJINews,
which complemented materials offered by other sites and
listservs.

Such online information and news are considered to have been
crucial strengthening public conviction that it was time for
the Suharto government to go. Among the most explosive
material that used to be found only on the Internet was the
list of assets of the Suharto and Habibie families and their
cronies, compiled by Dr. George Junus Aditjondro. This was
downloaded and then circulated in photocopied form while
Suharto was still in power. After his resignation, the mass
media began to quote Aditjondro's research. Recently,
various publishing houses put it in book form.

There was also the GoRo-GoRo on the SiarList mailing list.
Actually a collection of political jokes about Suharto and
his supporters, GoRo-GoRo became immensely popular and was
widely disseminated. The jokes were eventually published in
book form that was reproduced tens of thousands of times.

Even today, young journalists frustrated that their reports
do not get published in full in the print media post their
works on the Internet. Some journalists have even formed an
online discussion group called "Kuli Tinta (Slave of Ink)."
The SiarList itself remains like a news agency that
publishes political and economic news as well as articles on
human rights.

For those without access to a computer, children selling
newspapers on the streets sold hard copies of downloaded
Internet news at low prices. The Internet news sold very
well, but the children were unknowingly putting themselves
at risk. In 1996, the police arrested two university
lecturers (in Yogyakarta and Pekalongan) apparently for
possessing hard copies of SiaR news items downloaded from
certain mailing list. Recently, police officers also
arrested two children selling photocopies of downloaded
materials.

Efforts to Control and Censor

Other countries in Southeast Asia have since tried to thwart
dissension on the Web by imposing restrictions on Internet
access. In Indonesia, the Suharto government used to hint
about similar restrictions through the Minister of Post and
Telecommunications who said regulations were needed to
protect the young generation from the dangers of pornography
and guerrilla politics via the Internet. Senior armed forces
officials also criticized postings that were "divisive" or
that "incited" or "endangered political stability."
Fortunately, though, regulations on the Net have yet to be
introduced.

Still, ISP users in Indonesia have reported attempts to
censor the flow of information on the Net. E-mail sometimes
fails to reach its destination, or is delayed for several
days. E-mail addresses known to be used by dissidents are
said to be subject to censorship attempts by unknown
individuals within certain providers. In the days leading up
to the series of student demonstrations in 1998, access to
ISPs in Jakarta was very difficult. It may very well be that
this was because too many people were trying to use them at
the same time. But many observers believe that the providers
were being forced to sabotage the system.

A number of conglomerates such as Freeport McMoran, for
example, apparently censored postings from certain mailing
lists. Every posting from any of these mailing lists was
returned to the provider from which they were sent with the
note "User Name Unknown." A number of sensitive postings
were also discarded with the reason that the address to
which they were sent was not known.

For their part, many Indonesian Netizens have always been
wary of the Web, despite its seeming invulnerability to
outside "threats." Almost all advocacy NGOs in Indonesia,
for example, agreed early on that the Net did not
necessarily free them from risk of official retaliation for
what they did in cyberspace. Eventually they concluded that
in addition to using commercial ISPs, they also needed
e-mail access that did not have any direct link to the
Internet.

In 1994, the advocacy NGO community developed a restricted
e-mail system called the NusaNet Consortium. Today, there
are five towns in Indonesia that function as NusaNet
sub-hosts. NusaNet also plays a major role in disseminating
alternative news from the Internet to the NGO community.
According to its users, the NusaNet e-mail system and the
newsgroups within it are fairly secure because they
generally use the PGP encryption system for inter-NGO
communications.

But there will always be hackers. In the Indonesian
experience, though, Net infiltration so far seems to be more
concentrated on the issue of East Timor than anything else.
In February 1997, hackers, apparently from Portugal,
infiltrated a Website run by the Indonesian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and that was regarded as having disseminated
lies about East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that was
annexed by Indonesia in 1976. The hackers not only got in
the site, but also managed to change the appearance of the
Web page, altering the greeting "Welcome to the Department
of Foreign Affairs Republic of Indonesia" to read "Welcome
to the Department of Foreign Affairs Fascist Republic of
Indonesia."

Prior to this, in late November 1996, the homepage of the
BPPT office that had been singing praises of the
technological developments under then Minister of Research
and Technology B.J. Habibie was also penetrated by
Portuguese hackers. The attack, it was said, had been made
to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sta. Cruz tragedy in
which a still undetermined number of unarmed
pro-independence demonstrators were shot dead by Indonesian
soldiers. Such hacker attacks were repeated on various
official Indonesian government sites that functioned as
propaganda tools, including the home pages of the armed
forces, the police, the Ministry of Defense and Security, as
well as the ruling party Golkar.  In retaliation,
pro-Indonesian government hackers attacked a Website in
Portugal that was known as the "den" of politically
conscious computer activists.

The Internet in Indonesia's Future

For most Indonesian Netizens, though, the Internet obviously
goes beyond East Timor and its myriad problems. It is not
far-fetched to say that while the students in Tiananmen
Square fought the Chinese government with fax machines,
Indonesian students, NGOs and journalists marked a new era
by speeding up the downfall of a corrupt regime partly
through the might of the Internet. To be sure, not only were
intense discussions about democracy and human rights held in
cyberspace and then disseminated through photocopies of
downloaded materials, much of the militant actions aimed
against Suharto were coordinated on the Net.

Today, the Internet continues to be crucial to Indonesia's
future, and is still regarded as an alternative medium for
views and news that would otherwise remain unheard and
unwritten. While Indonesian authorities are less strict on
media these days than they were during the Suharto regime,
there are still reports that go unpublished and vital
information that does not get to the people. The Internet
has thus continued as the one venue in which people can
express the otherwise inexpressible and have access to
information denied them in the mainstream media.

But there are indications that the Net may also evolve into
a mainstream medium of sorts, especially now that the cost
of producing print media has risen sharply. Newprint now
costs almost Rp. 9,000 ($1) per kilo. There are also the
overhead expenses of editorial offices and other production
needs -- such as film, batteries, electricity, telephone,
and printing -- to consider. Not cheap even during
pre-crisis days, all of these now run astronomical tabs.

Although various forms of mass media have emerged recently,
observers see this as merely an element of political
euphoria. There is no doubt that the mainstream print media
in Indonesia are under the threat of bankruptcy. One means
of ensuring their continued existence is to evolve into
paperless media and go online. It is highly possible that
Indonesian media organizations may yet find themselves
competing in cyberspace.




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