Indonesia Topics

Jakarta Police arrested Wednesday 39 members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) for their alleged involvement in the so called Monas incident when they attacked a group of people on Sunday.

The arrest of 39 FPI members went without serious incident as previously worried after FPI leader Habib Rizieq Shihab gave his cooperation and ordered all FPI members not to resist arrest.

The police, fearing resistance from FPI members, were heavily armed and guarded FPI headquarters since early morning.

“Don’t be panic because whether or not you are declared suspects will depend upon investigation by the police,” Rizieq told his followers, as reported by SCTV TV station.

“We will send our lawyers to accompany you during questioning by the police.”

FPI members attacked the National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion (AKKBB) activists at the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta on Sunday in what FPI perceived as defending the devan Islamic sect of Ahmadiyah.

FPI has urged the government to ban Ahmadiyah for not following mainstream Islamic tenets especially in regarding founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as a prophet. Mainstream Muslims regard Prophet Muhammad as the seal of prophets and there will be no more prophets coming. (The Jakarta Post)

It’s a big game, big match, big result and big supporters between Manchester United and Arsenal will be happening tonight (13/4). But it’s a shame, Indonesian-football-lovers wouldn’t be able to watch this super big match tonight (13/4). Astro Nusantara, the holder of English Premier League broadcast rights in Indonesia, is being temporarily off-air due to some frequency problems with the Department of Communication and Information.

This will dissapoint most Astro TV’s customers whom most of them must be an English Premier League (EPL) die-hard fans. Astro Nusantara is one of the pay-TV players in Indonesia and is a Malaysia based company.

Indonesia Consumer Watch (YLKI) suggests Astro’s customers to take this matter to the court. This is obviously Astro’s stupid fault as they did not control and obey their obligation to the rule of Department of Communication & Information.

It seems that Astro will have a huge problem with their customers. Let’s wait.

What do you think? Bring EPL back to free-tv?

UPDATED
MATCH RESULT:
#MANCHESTER UNITED 2
- Ronaldo “54 (Pen)
- Hargreaves “72

#ARSENAL 1
- Adebayor “48

APJII or Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association eventually blocked Youtube access through Indonesia Internet Exchange. Thus, majority of Indonesians who use this line will be unable to open Youtube. This has been an official command from Indonesia’s Minister of Information & Communication Muhammad Nuh.

However, APJII cannot guarantee that the access over Youtube is fully blocked from entire Indonesia. APJII head Sylvia Sumarlin says,”Because there are also several other lines, ISPs are usually have redundancy”.

This action is a response towards official letter from the Minister of Information and Communication to block Youtube over the distribution of Fitna the movie which can harm the unity and tolerance between believers in Indonesia.

On April 2nd, Indonesia government have asked Youtube to remove several Fitna videos for 2 days. However, there are still no response.

Sumarlin states that APJII will also coordinate with Mastel, Imoca, Awari and others regarding mechanism on blocking some other harmful sites. “We don’t want to be discriminative to Youtube, we will also consider others,” says Sumarlin.

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.

Indonesia said Tuesday it would block access to YouTube unless the video-sharing Web site removes an anti-Muslim film by a Dutch lawmaker within 48 hours.

Communications and Information Minister Mohammad Nuh said the government sent a letter to the site informing it of its demand on Tuesday.

“The deadline is two days. If (the film) is not removed by that time, we will block YouTube under cooperation with the Internet service providers,” Nuh told reporters in the capital, Jakarta.

Anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders posted the 15-minute film on LiveLeak.com on Friday. It has since been available on other blogs and file-sharing sites, including YouTube.

Last year, Thailand blocked YouTube for four months because of clips it deemed offensive to the king. The ban was lifted after YouTube’s owner, Google Inc., agreed to not allow videos that break Thai laws or offend the Thai people.

In February, YouTube was inaccessible globally for several hours after the government of Pakistan blocked it, citing what it said were clips in which Wilders made denigrating remarks about Islam.

Wilders’ film intersperses scenes of recent terror attacks with versus from the Quran, Islam’s holy book, and speeches from Islamic extremists calling for attacks on non-Muslims. It has been condemned as racist and misleading by governments around the world.

Earlier Tuesday, about 50 people rallied outside the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta calling for Wilders to be put to death.

“Islam is a holy religion,” Shodiq Ramadan told about 50 protesters who shouted in agreement. “Those who have insulted it deserve to be sentenced to death.”

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation, but its government is secular and hard-line interpretations of the faith generally do not attract much support.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who relies on the support of several Islamic parties in parliament, has condemned the film and urged protesters in Indonesia - a former Dutch colony - to stay calm. (courtesy: The Jakarta Post)