Indonesia Topics

It’s probably rare, but in this information age, Sjahrazad Masdar took the opportunity. Masdar totally realize that there are only about 5-10% of Lumajang population who use the Internet and have votes in the next Pilkada Bupati (mayor) Lumajang. Does this really matters to the Lumajang voters?

“10% is fairly huge number. If I could get the 10%, then I only need to work another 42% votes to make sure that I will be the next Lumajang mayor,” says Masdar to IndonesiaTopics.Com.

Masdar’s opinion is optimistic and realistic. Blog makes life easier to communicate with potential voters. He believes that those people who come to his blog and got the right to vote next July are rational voters.

“At least, they know computers, internet and they are part of the best human resources that Lumajang have. We bring web 2.0 to voters ,” says Masdar who just won Golkar Party Convention.

Masdar’s blog located in CakAjad08.Com is maintained by Syamsul Arief Rakhmadani, a public relation professional in Jakarta, together with his team from Australia and Lumajang. Rakhmadani is fully aware that having a blog may rise the “intellectual” perspective of one candidate.

“It means that if you vote for Masdar, you don’t vote for a bloody stupid or I might say intellectually poor person who runs for Bupati. Masdar exactly knows information technology and Lumajang people need this kind of leader to take Lumajang forward,” says Rakhmadani.

Public relation theory speaking that image is definitely important in political marketing. Masdar’s image is smart inside out. He has a long great track record in public servant and had been a great temporarily acting Jember’s Mayor during Jember Pilkada.

“So, having a blog is a fantastic move to Masdar image as well as a great tool of political communication,” says Rakhmadani.

Indonesia’s government finally unblocks the giant vide-sharing website YouTube after blocking the site for one week. This happens after a letter cloming to the Minister’s desk from Google, YouTube owner.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication Muhammad Nuh apologizes of the blocking. The government done this to prevent the access of FITNA movie.

“We didn’t mean to block the whole access to YouTube. We were meant to block some cautious content in there,” Says Nuh in his office.

From now, Youtube is officially unblocked from Indonesia. But Nuh hopes that YouTube gives their best effort to prevent FITNA in Indonesia, as Google promised in their response.

ISPs in Indonesia are obeying the instructions of Minister of Communication & Information Muhammad Nuh. Not just YouTube, MySpace and Multiply, some of the most accessed websites in Indonesia are also banned.

Minister Nuh’s official letter were not explicitly contained about banning those website. But apparently, the major ISPs are doing beyond the instructions.

Some of the news are here. This is a reaction of Indonesia’s government over the Movie, Fitna, made by Dutch politician’s Geert Wilders.

Bandung Blog Village (BBV), one of the earlier blogger communities in Indonesia questions the credibility and expertise of Roy Suryo. Roy Suryo is a well-known IT commentators in Indonesia who said that bloggers and hackers are the same. Suryo said that blogger is the same as hacker. This invites many comments from bloggers and other online communities throughout Indonesia.

Muhammad Iqbal, the chief of BBV feels that the comment of Roy Suryo is irritating the communities. “We are questioning the IT capability of Roy Suryo regarding this case,” says Iqbal. “Therefore, we are ready to conduct a public debate with Suryo anytime he wants.”

Roy Suryo statement was delivered during an interview by the press over the case of some cracker movement by defacing the Ministry of Communication and Information’s website a week ago. Roy Suryo’s face was similar to the hunk photo placed on the site when defaced. Iqbal argues that Suryo’s statement was “too personal” which does not measure his expertise at any level.