Avianto's Journal

Law existed to protect people. Law created to make people feel safe. But somehow, it worked the other way around in Indonesia. Law was used to shackle people, to keep people on the leash and to shut down the voice of freedom.

The story so far

This was the case of a mother of two children against the all mighty private hospital with divine and majestic name, Omni International Hospital. The mother wrote an email about her dissatisfaction of the hospital treatment to her, which she claimed was bad and horrendously unsatisfactory. The email, naturally, spread around certain mailing list and published on a couple of website including this one (It’s in Indonesian). Reasonable enough since she said the hospital was not really paid attention to her previous complain. Or not.

Update: The English translation of Mrs. Prita’s email are available; credits goes to Ryan Koesuma for translation and Unspun blog for republishing it outside Facebook.

Somehow, the all mighty hospital felt insulted and sued the mother base on defamation/libel. So, they treated patients like cash cows, which unfortunately a common practice in Indonesia’s medical field, and when the patient complained and wrote the complain so the whole world could see, they felt insulted and sued the patient. Well, as if holding up a body of a deceased person because the family could not paid the bill or holding up a newborn baby because the parents could not afford the bill right away were not enough, now the hospital felt insulted when somebody told the world about their misdemeanor and sued that somebody. What was it? A joke? It wasn’t even funny.

What striked me actually, this fiasco probably would not happened, still probably – there were many way to twist the law in Indonesia, if you had the power and money, if one particular law was not exists. Introducing, the famous Information and Electronic Transaction Law aka. UU ITE (Undang-undang Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik).

Armed with this law, the hospital sued the mother and the court pointed the mother as the suspect and she has been in jail for 3 weeks, as of today (Source: Koran Tempo in Indonesian). The trial will be held on June 4, 2009.

Information and Electronic Transaction Law aka. UU ITE

When this law was signed more or less a year ago, I was cringed. I was afraid, not because I could be punished by this draconian law but because some of the points were obscure, unclear and could be interpreted in some twisted way. I won’t go far to explain the law, use Google and read it yourself. Some items in that law were actually good and fulfill their purpose to protect the people, but those items, especially those parts about “defamation and/or libel” were so draconian and easily manipulated especially to those who got the power and money. Added the corrupt justice system, which again unfortunately a common knowledge in Indonesia, to the mix then we had a recipe to disaster.

I am one of the biggest opponent of this law, as many of my respected colleague, but as you might remember my writing titled “Commander” around last year – it was a different case but it lead into this law being signed, the department who were somehow responsible for the creation of this law was ignorant. Now, to add the absurdity of the current situation, the Director General of that department, Mr. Cahyana who hold the Master of Law degree, told one of the prominent blogger, Enda Nasution that the court actually misinterpreted the law. Where have you been, Sir? Did we said this law could easily misinterpreted more than a year ago? And your department defiantly went into deaf mode and said this law was for the good of the people? The truth, Sir, your department were plain ignorant at that time and now it’s time to feel the wake up slap in your face.

That comment also made me wondered; so if the law was misinterpreted, did it because the law was not clear enough or the court was not smart enough to interpret the law? Or even worse, the law was not clear enough and the court was not smart enough too. Again, the recipe to bigger disaster then.

Cowards

Added insult to the injury was the response of some people related to this case. Some said, it mean everybody, Indonesian especially, should be careful of what they were writing online (email, blogs, tweet, whatever), even if it was the truth. Sounds pathetic, wasn’t it? I called them cowards. When the bush was beaten, they were cowering down under, afraid to speak the truth and even stigmatize those who told the truth.

These people were the reason Indonesia never soar as a great country it supposed to be. These people put a blind eye to the corruption of power those institutions above showed. These people chose, deliberately, to stigmatize the people who brave enough to tell the truth. These people were the traitor to free speech, democracy and humanity.

Critics

So, by writing this, I directly and indirectly criticized the medical institution, justice system, a government department and a bunch of cowards. Will I get sued for defamation and libel? It possible. Even though I am just stating the truth, I am not fabricated any facts, known facts, about the corrupt system of justice, the money seeking practice of medical institution and the ignorance of a government department. So if the worse thing happened then all I can say is the country I always love is going back to the way it used to be, a repressive, totalitarian and draconian one. What a step back and for that I am feeling very sorry…

While waiting for the hammer to fall, these are some call to action links (all in Indonesian):

• Put the banner to free the mother, Mrs. Prita Mulyasari
• Facebook Cause: Support for Mrs. Prita Mulyasari
• Facebook Page: Say No to Omni Tangerang Hospital

After a meeting with Ministry of Communication and Informatics yesterday night, I am still amazed about how linear, short-sighted, narrow minded and low self-esteem my government is. From the discussion, all of those attributes were coming out one by one and it scared me. A lot.

Self-Esteem

If I burn the barn just because I can not catch one rat, I believe people will call me stupid, absurd or even idiot. But that was what happened with YouTube case. I don’t know who was behind the idea of blocking YouTube, the Minister said it was coming from the President, just because one crappy movie. Yes, the movie insulted the religion of the majority of Indonesian, no doubt about it, but the way Indonesian government reacted was totally over reacting.

Let me turn my flashback engine. Indonesian government told YouTube to takedown a movie, I don’t have to tell you what movie it is – if you don’t know what movie I am talking about, just help yourself with Google. YouTube didn’t respond because well, it’s YouTube, all of the content were user generated content. But instead of following the spirit of the web by flagging the movie as negative or offensive, the government grumpily chosed to block the entire YouTube. Yeah, I said grumpily because the government thought that YouTube didn’t respect Indonesian government request. So low self-esteem. So low that the government didn’t have guts to create a creative way to counter the movie on the content level. So low that instead of encouraging its own people to create a counter movie, the government chosed to close down the infrastructure. It’s pathetic, really.

That action was also very New Orderly. In the New Order era, if the government did not like one article then the government would ban the newspaper that have the article. The history repeated itself. Welcome to the New Order 2.0.

Narrow Minded

It’s clear that the intention of the Ministry to invite the community was to ask how to block a certain movie discussed above. Nothing else. So no matter how the community screamed out their heart out and even offered brilliant alternative solution other than blocking, the Ministry simply shrugged those off. The Ministry only want to hear the solution for their solution which was the blocking, imagine how strange it was.

Who put us into this mess first time? Who brilliant enough to come out with the idea of blocking the whole website, without even knowing the essence of user generated content, just because of one content? Then when they realized it was not so easy, they were asking help for their problem and closed their eyes and mind for any other better and yet smart alternatives. They can not even solved their own solution. Nice work.

Xenophobic

One of the department staff continuously talking about xenophobic and racism toward us in the international world. As if Indonesian were not xenophobic and racist toward others? I always said this and people kept getting angry with my statement: “Indonesian are one of the most xenophobic and racist people in the world”. Do you think it’s not true?

Even worse, Indonesian are just not racist, Indonesian are tribalist. How many times we hear: “Javanesse vs. Sundanesse”, “Sumatra people are better than Java people”, “Where are you come from? Java? Solo? Jogja?”, “You don’t look like Batak”, “Are you Chinese? So you must be very rich”, “Indonesian girls who are dating foreigners are only looking for money” and other racist/tribalist comments? Don’t say you never heard it or even don’t say you never said it, because that will be a lie.

Putting the blame to the international world for being xenophobic and racist against us was like a childish act. We are racist, we are xenophobic, we are tribalist – even I sometime fallen into that trap, not just toward the international world but toward our own community, our own country.

Commander

I saw yesterday meeting as a step forward for the government to listen the voice of its people directly. I appreciated the effort, really I did. It’s just a shame that the government was only looking for one track solution. There were other inspirations, other ideas and other things that could become a better solution without losing our dignity as a nation.

International world treated us with xenophobic and racism. Fine, that’s already happened. Are we stand still? Of course not. But not in the level of forbidding access, not in the level of an undemocratic country (yeah, some of you probably laugh about this), not in the level of a security personal. We showed them that we are great. We are creative. We are proud of our identity. We are able to compete on the same level with them. That will be a very smart and dignified solution.

Somehow the word ‘Government’ made me wonder. It means ‘someone to govern’. While it translated into Indonesian as “Pemerintah” which actually means “someone who command”. Commanding vs. Governing. Is that what the Indonesian government all about? I command thee to block YouTube – no other option! I didn’t want to believe that it was true but it seems like the truth.

Epilogue

It was clear that the commander er… government only could think of one solution. Blocking (or in the milder term: filtering). That’s all. They want to control the information again. I was joking around and said that the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Depkominfo in Indonesian abbreviation) should probably changed its name into ‘Departemen Kompilasi Informasi’ (Department of Information Compilation) – it still retain the name ‘Depkominfo’ but with a different meaning because that’s what they did right now. They decided and compiled which were the best content for their people – for some it was an insult for an intelligence, of course, but those ‘some’ are not majority, so don’t worry.

There you have it.

Additional Note (April 9, 2008 – 0:23):

I just watched this movie. This is an example of a smart way to deal with the issue. This is what I was trying to tell the Ministry – which of course, like shouting against the wind. This is the mature solution. This is what I called “playing on the same level”. This is a high self-esteem. This is a broad-minded view. This is what our government lack of…

Here’s a long and true story… happened on Tuesday, 15 January 2008 from around noon until late night. The locations and events were true.

Around lunch time, a rather old citizen mechanic was asked by a car owner to fix and get the owner’s car which was stranded somewhere in a public parking lot. Unfortunately, a miscommunication happened and the mechanic accidentally tried to open another car with the same look just across the street. Guess what happened next…

South Jakarta Prosecutor Office (Kantor Kejaksaan Jakarta Selatan, Velbak)

The mistaken car park in the South Jakarta Prosecutor office. Before the mechanic realized his error, one of the prosecutor official yelled “Car thief!” at the mechanic and dozen of prosecutor official in their official uniform punched and kicked the mechanic. Now, try to imagine this: prosecutors, part of the Justice Department, wearing their uniform, punching and kicking a senior citizen who accused stealing a car without even gave the mechanic a chance to explain himself and they are supposed to be the one who make sure that justice was served in this country. Great.

The mechanic bad day was not ending yet. After being punched and kicked brutally, they (prosecutors in uniform) dragged him to the security room and questioning the mechanic. Then, the mechanic was sent to the police station.

South Jakarta Sector Police Headquarter (Polsek Jakarta Selatan, Taman Puring)

Police. The arm of justice. Yeah, right. What happened in the police office was more mind blowing. The mechanic was dragged into the interrogation room and, this one was pathetic, tasered again and again to force the mechanic to confess. Tasered… taser was created to defend oneself, not as the torture device, right? Yeah, right. And to confess, confessed what exactly? That the mechanic was a car thief? He’s not. He was simply mistaken the car. OK, the mechanic had his own fault for not checking the car plate first. But according to the mechanic, which he told later, he already asked permission to the parking guard and got the parking guard permission. Well, no use. Still the police tasered, punched and threaten the mechanic to get his ‘confession’.

Procedures

The car owner finally get notified about the accident (but not the beating and torturing part) in the afternoon. He thought lightly about the issue at the moment because well, it was a simple mistake, right? A couple of ID checks, few phone calls should made everything all right. Right?

It turned out the police made things complicated than that. They said the mechanic was not supposed to be release because:

• He got to be contained for 24 hours OR,
• The owner of the mistaken car filed a complain if the mechanic accidentally broke the car lock OR,
• The family of the mechanic ‘bailed’ him OR,
• Whatever… No idea.

So there were many and different reasons for the mechanic’s contained situation. Most of them were ridiculous anyway but how about made things more interesting? Read it until the end then, it will get more absurd as ever.

Reasoning

The car owner arrived at the police station after dark. He felt like a moron because he was believing that the police would treat the mechanic well and humanly. He had a good faith with the police. He used to be a ‘school security patrol’ when he was at school. He knew there were a lot of corrupt police but this case was not about money – it was about mistake. He got to admit that he was wrong. Wrong about the police and especially wrong about the justice.

When he came to the police station, the mechanic was sitting in the office of one of the officer with one officer. The mechanic looked stressful but physically quite well except for a couple of bruises in his face. The police was acting like he was the ruler of the world. Arrogant, full of pride and snobbish. Typical.

So, the car owner directly asked what should be done in this particular situation. Before the officer started talking, the car owner put a tape recorder and took out the notepad to write important things. The police officer gave a long speech about this and that, how things were really put the mechanic in a very deep trouble and so on. The office even emphasized about the owner of the mistaken car, he said the owner was one of the highest rank in the prosecutor office as if that fact will add some value other than a fact that a high rank of public servant was allowing an innocent man to be beaten and contained?

The car owner was furious and irritated of the officer’s answer. But he thought anger would not solve the problem, so he took a deep breath and started talking about the facts.

Absurd Facts

Now, here comes the most absurd parts:

• When asked about the name of the high rank prosecutor, the officer said he did not know and did not care. He just wait for that prosecutor to come to the police station to file a complain.
• When asked about the car plate number of the mistaken car, the officer said he did not know and did not care. So the car which was about to be stolen, an evidence, was not identified and was out there somewhere.
• When asked about how long the mechanic would be held, the office said he did not know and reasoned it was depend on the ‘situation’. He asked if someone would like to take responsibility if the mistaken car owner filed a complain then he would try to release the mechanic as soon as possible.

So, the owner of mistaken car was not identified, the identity of the mistaken car was not identified – only the color and the brand (even with the brand, the same kind of car had 3 types, which of course was not identified either) and the time of containment was not rigidly set. A really great situation.

The car owner told the officer that he would be the one who will take the responsibility if there were any damage to the mistaken car’s lock. The officer told the car owner to write down the note of responsibility. The car owner wrote the note himself, these are the quotes:

… Will took responsibility if the mistaken car’s lock of the car, which plate number was not known, was broken because of the mechanic’s act and the mistaken car owner, which was unidentified, asked for a compensation…

It was a ghost car with a ghost owner.

The officer read it and made remark about maybe sometime will visit the car owner when he was in the neighborhood. Politeness or a threat? Nobody knows, just wait and see. The officer then told the car owner that he would need to contact his superior for the approval of the note. He said he could not guarantee the time since probably the superior was not at the office. It could take 5 minutes to the whole day, according to him. The car owner said he would wait until the mechanic released. So the officer went out for about 10 minutes.

After the Note

When he returned, he said everything was fine, the mechanic would be released right away. Great, except one thing. All of the belonging of the mechanic (ID card, some money and his motorcycle’s key) was confiscated and stored in the drawer of one of the officer and he was away. The officer told the mechanic to retrieve his belonging on the next morning. The car owner said he would be the one to retrieve it but he need the name of the officer who held it. The officer refused to tell the name of the other officer but suddenly a person came into the room and asking for that particular officer while mentioning the name, great. The car owner wrote down the name of all three officers in that room. It could come in handy one day.

Couple of minutes later, the drawer’s officer came in with a polite behavior and a very bright smile. He tried to be friendly while later on, the car owner learned that officer was the one who tasering the most and even spoke the harshest threat to the mechanic. The office then opened his drawer and handed out all of the mechanic’s belonging.

After some chit chat about everything, including marriage life and so on (Yeah, that was pointless, wasn’t it?), the car owner and the mechanic walked out of the room, walked out of the police station, get the mechanic’s motorcycle and went home.

Epilogue

During the fiasco, the car owner wondered, what was the point of all this hullabaloo. The prosecutor officers were brutally oppressive, the police officers were tasering people around, the mistaken car and its owner were not around and not filing anything yet, the mechanic was held up and get tortured, the car owner time was wasted, the energy was depleted and the point was?

Some people pointed out that these were strategies used by the police officer to extort some money. Well, in this case no money was spent useless – except maybe the taxi fare. The officer did not ask for money at all. Maybe they just enjoyed tasering people.

Is there anyway to file a complain if we experienced this things? Especially about the brutality of the prosecutor officers. Indonesian already knew the police corp is the most corrupted and brutal institution in this country. Where we supposed to report about this incident? The police? The court? Or these kind of accidents just happened and we just have to forget it? Seems like my last writing foreshadowing these kind of accidents.

To make things fair: The beating was witnessed by a lot of people but the tasering was told by the mechanic only. As far his relatives and friends knew, the mechanic was an honest man.

Note: Bringing a tape recorder and a notepad were a good way to deal with government or public official like police officers. Mentioning the word “journalist” also helps especially if you had press contact or a press corp yourself. Had a connection with Committee of Law Support and Corruption Eradication Committee was also a great assets.

It’s the time of the year again. End of year. I’d been overwhelmed with Real Life™ lately and the end of year phase was not really helping me to slow down either. So yeah, sorry for the lack of update lately. There were many issues need to be resolved before the new year comes.

2007 Recap

For me, 2007 was a decent year. Not too great but not too terrible. Meet dozens new interesting people, some actually played a great deal in my life now. Doing dozens of projects, some of them were great and interesting while the rest could be categorized as ‘pain in the neck but I need the money’ type of project. Well, to sum it up, I’d seen better years.

Although things were not all glitters and golds, 2007 was the year I will definitely miss. It was a year when I finally barely coped living in Jakarta. Jakarta is still hell, of course. Floods, traffic jams, crazy drivers, arrogant governor, corrupted local government, unpredictable cost of living were only small fractions of Jakarta’s problem. And it was getting worse. I was less frustrated not because the situation was getting better, I just get used to it right now. I wish I will not too comfortable with this situation and getting numb because of it.

Starting 2007 as a semi-permanent lecturer at Binus University International, I am still teaching there now. While teaching I’d been doing favors to dozens of companies, either as a consultant or involved directly in their companies or projects. It was exciting time unless the amount of time wasted in the traffic really tired me down.

Not much happening tho. Most of the time, it was all about surviving. Getting the projects when the saving was low, relaxing after all the bills were paid, looking for project again when the saving was starting to deplete, wash, rinse and repeat. While this kind of living giving me a lot of free time, this level of ‘excitement’ sometimes felt too much.

The Challenge

Then the unexpected came. Somehow, my resume got a particular company’s attention. We talked and after couple of months back and forth, things started to materialized. I generally turned off the possibility of working within a particular company in Jakarta but the challenge I’ll have to deal with this one was just too good to pass. It was a position where I believe I could make a difference in the world that I generally thought as clueless, ignorant and aimless when it came to the ‘digital life’.

So, starting January 2008 – as early as 2 January, I will work as manager for Carat Digital, a business unit of Carat, an international media company and part of Aegis Media, in Jakarta. As the spearhead of this business unit, my main responsibilities will be to expand the business of Carat Indonesia into the digital world by introducing, educating, implementing and utilizing “digital” in the communication and marketing strategy that Carat will employ for its current and prospect clients.

It was a tall order since most of Indonesian media and advertising agency (including Carat Indonesia) are still working within their traditional mindset. Almost everybody who know me already knew my almost pessimistic attitude about this issue. Some agency tried to ‘adopt’ digital and most of them failed miserably. Most of their problem were based on their hesitation (or arrogance?) to understand about digital completely. They thought they could treated digital media as the same as their treated traditional media. Of course, for some cases, they were right but what they didn’t realize was -”digital media was more than everything we already know and learn from traditional media”-.

When they treated digital media as traditional media, they were actually trapping themselves inside their traditional box. While many traditional practices still valid when translated into digital, there were many possibilities outside traditional practices. Of course they were untested as vigorously as the traditional practice but that was the exciting and challenging part. Name one of Indonesian media or advertising agency creation related to implementation of digital media as a communication and marketing strategy that actually worked or at least had some major impact. It was a common knowledge that a website (a very basic implementation of digital media for communication and marketing purpose) built by an Indonesian media or advertising agency would normally unusable, inaccessible, not compliance with web standards and fail to meet its purpose. For some of the time, the strategy was great but something went wrong when it came into the implementation phase. So yeah, definitely there must be a better way for media and advertising agency in Indonesia to adopt digital as part of its arsenal.

I am not saying that I have a magic pill that could cure all of those problem. But as a person growing up half of my life with digital and taking formal education specifically in digital media, I believe I can make the difference. The challenge is too great to pass and I am not the person who let go the formidable challenge. I am talking about interactivity, connectivity, immersivity and subtlety. It will all about people oriented website or digital media, viral communication, alternate reality game, mobile devices, digital installation and dozens of exciting things in the digital world.

I still maintain my teaching schedule at Binus, my new company allowed me to do it and I was very glad and thankful for it, but maybe I need to adjust the hours. Currently I still had to finish the current semester and I will need to readjust the hours for the next semester.

Resolutions?

I didn’t had the habit of resolutions. Not that I didn’t had any dreams or ambitions, I have a lot of those, it’s just I put things into a flexible box. While there were many pointers in that box, those pointers merely served as reminders than targets. But for 2008 I think I will emphasize one red thread to highlight 2008:

To learn, educate, think, create, implement, utilize, bring to the new level, explore, communicate, popularize and promote digital as an additional framework of thought for a better and enjoyable life.

All right, it was very vague and I’d been doing that since many years ago but I will make 2008 the year I will dedicate to achieve those goals exclusively.

Happy New Year 2008!

So, happy New Year everyone. I wish all of you the best and the greatest year. The journey will be hard but the learning experience will be valuable. Have a great new year eve and see you in 2008. It will be a very exciting year.

It was a great party! Blogger Party 2007 was a successful and memorable event. Thanks to all of the committee, workers and sponsors and of course, big thanks to all blogger who were there or supporting the event from afar.

It was a blast. Words could not expressed how I felt there. Met lots of people, some I already met before, some I knew since ages but never met and some were new. We should do this more often, eh?

Blogger’s power

For Indonesian blogger, this event was a moment of recognition and acceptance. The Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Muhammad Nuh proclaimed 27 October as a “Indonesia National Bloggers Day” and I believe it made Indonesia the first country in the world to have a “National Bloggers Day”. He also promised to value freedom of expression for all blogger in Indonesia. Hmm, should Indonesia offers asylum to repressed blogger all over the world too?

With great power, come great responsibility (Uncle Ben to Peter Parker aka. Spiderman)

So the freedom was granted and the blogger was recognized highly… Now, how Indonesian blogger will respond to that?I believe Indonesian blogger are those rare people who understand and value great power and will use it wisely and full of responsibilty. Without those value, all of this will be vanished in vain and nobody wants that to happened.

Lighter side

On the lighter side, I was enjoying the event so much. It remind me years ago when I started this journal as a mere media to express my thought, opinion, dream and experience without restraint. I never dreamed that one day, blog became a giant snowball and brought down freedom of expression into personal level, especially in Indonesia.

The joy of meeting people I respect and read their writing every day was unbelievable. I felt like I knew them for so long, I could jumped in and started conversation right away with them. Amal said to me that day: “We already know them by their writing and that was a good start since we value and respect them by their mind and not appearance and any other physical attachment.”. I believe he was right on the spot and as an admirer of human’s mind, I think blog is one way to empower a human being to achieve the next level of thinking.

I enjoyed the party too much, I forgot to take out my own camera. Ouch. I know, it was blasphemy not taking any picture during the event but what can I say? I was enjoying the event so much, I really don’t care about taking photos. Anyway, those who want to see the picture could see hundreds of them at flickr.

So thank you to all of you, sorry for not put all of your blogs in this entry – there are too many of you! You know who you are, thank you so much for brought back my faith about Indonesian people. You are the greatest people I’ve ever known, all of you.

What’s next?

Blogger Party 2008, of course! Between them, I hope there will be many meeting and hangout among bloggers. Maybe not just for fun, maybe for business, profit and hopefully for the greater cause like peace on earth or whatever.

Hopefully, Indonesian blogger are realized they are now have a great power and great responsibility. Blog is not just a ‘momentary trend’ as one of the so-called expert said some years ago. Blog is the people power, the power dreamed so many years ago by the fighter of freedom.

Well, for me… it was a challenge. A challenge for a better writing and opinion. In the end, this journal will be one of my legacy and I want to have a great legacy.

Sidenote

Some promises were made. Actively contribute articles to 3GWeek for mas Budi Putra, continue my hiatus podcast for mas Rane and of course, writing more quality content for all of you.

Thank you all. I’ll be just around the corner if you need me.