Transparency, Democracy, Human Right & Empowerment: Three (3) cases of real life saga.

Onno W. Purbo (onno@indo.net.id)
Sunday, July 09, 2000
Abstract
Real life saga in educating the Indonesian as well as fight for the right / truth will be described. Three (3) cases will be used as a real life example, i.e., (1) building the AI3 Indonesia education network, (2) building warung internet network based on community initiatives, and (3) fight for the right of a lady whom her right has been severely violated by NRM/EPIQ Program (a USAID’s funded program). Note that some of these cases are years of on-going processes that need a significant endurance, dedication & commitment for those who wish to follow the path & make these activities a success, I sincerely hope more Indonesian comrades are willing to take much risk to do these tasks – I am sure god never make a wrong calculation on your good deeds.

A rapid dissemination of knowledge via Internet is proven to be a powerful strategy in removing dependency on power hunger entities that leads to a very much horizontal structure in information landscape. Effect of unleashing people’s power through knowledge transparency in interactive digital media will be a surprising delight that never been think off by most old economy bureaucrats. A little bit of knowledge in community based social construction, information & psychological warfare would be useful in speed-up the process.

Interestingly, transparency of knowledge & information that unleash people’s power in digital media and leads to a self-propel activities, self-funding & sustainable. Surprisingly minimal intervention from the government as well as minimal requirement of foreign loan, increase of democracy & human right awareness are build-in into the process.
The challenge
Indonesia is an archipelago country, cast stretches of seas, big distances both over land and over water. Population is dispersed. The country is divided into 26 provinces; each province is subdivided in districts (kabupaten) and municipalities (kotamadya). Districts and municipalities are further divided into counties (kecamatan). There are about 400 districts and municipalities, a few thousand counties and some 70,000 villages. Population in each province is very varied, from 25 million to less than 3 million populations.

Indonesia is not completely backwards in telecommunications, thanks to significant investments since the early '70s up to the economic crisis (1998). These investments include the operation of a domestic satellite communication system since 1976. Although the density of telephones is still quite small, that is approximately 6 million lines for 210 million population (or 2.8 per 100 people); penetration is such that most county capitals have automatic telephone service. Assuming that 5 persons in average use one telephone line, 30 million out of Indonesia's total population of 210 million have basic access in their homes or offices/ workplace. About 30% of all villages have access to basic services, at least through a public phone or a public telecommunications service center.

In Indonesia Internet arena, in contrast to most people believe that individual access would dominate Internet, based on the survey done by Markplus & SWA Magazine published in June 2000. 60-70% Indonesian Internet access is done through community access center / cyber café known as Warung Internet (WARNET). A rapid growth of WARNET is noted in early 2000, close to 1000 WARNET is formed & becoming an Association of WARNET Indonesia (AWARI) http://www.warnet.or.id in May 2000 supported by virtual activities at asosiasi-warnet@egroups.com.

Most of the information on Indonesian telecommunication industrial policy can be obtained from the blue print of Indonesian telecommunication industry written in Indonesian "Cetak Biru Kebijakan Pemerintah Tentang Telekomunikasi Indonesia" can be obtained from DITJEN POSTEL (http://www.postel.go.id). Other independent source for Indonesian telecommunication industry is at Masyarakat Telekomunikasi MASTEL (Telecommunication Society) at http://www.mastel.or.id.

Most of the Information on Indonesian Internet activities & IT industries can be obtained from:

•	Association of Indonesian Internet Service Provider (http://www.apjii.or.id).
•	Indonesian Chamber of Commerce List (http://www.indopage.com)
•	Microsoft Indonesia (http://www.microsoft.com/indonesia)

In spite of the effort at infrastructure level, a large barrier exists at higher levels, human resource quality, knowledge assets, human assets are lacking. Within the 90+ million workforce in Indonesia most are primary schools educated 30% of who never receive any formal education. I believe education level would be the one that create lack of IT demand within the society which contradict current believe that IT & computers are expensive and only for the haves.
A glimpse of philosophy behind the movement
Most people seem to correlate transparency mostly at policy (wisdom) level. If we look at more closely to layers of data & information it actually consists of minimal 4 layers, i.e., data, information, knowledge & wisdom (policy).

In my day-to-day & actual experiences, when transparency is forced at lower level - the transparency will be logically occurred at higher level as well. In contrast, forcing transparency at higher level & hoping a trickle down effect to lower level will be painful wait-and-see conditions. It would a much easier way to inject transparency at lower level and generate mass that in turn pushes the higher-level barriers away. Same philosophy exists in choosing a sustainable society development scheme, either supply created demand or demand created supply. The second (bottom-up) is proven to be a more cost effective approach. All of these experiences will be described in the section on real life experience.

Top down approach, such as, creating supply, educate the bureaucrats / executives aim to change the policy will (I believe) normally fail to trickle down in Indonesia. This in turn leads to unsustainable projects, terminated pilot projects etc.

Bottom-up approach, creating demand, educate the society, convince the society on certain concepts, disseminate the information & knowledge as wide as possible, uses as many media as possible i.e. radio, printed & Internet, the more people convince the larger the mass the stronger you'll be...

I must say though bottom-up approach although it is a good alternative with low financial & low risk consequences; it requires full dedication & commitment from those who would like to run it in real life. Leadership will be imbedded in those persons who dedicate themselves to do these activities. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult for us to find such characteristics in most government officials & (sorry to say) leaders.

IT would be most suitable for bottom-up approach that requires less bureaucratic structures & rely heavily to the expertise & functionality of the persons. A flat organization would characterized a virtual organization, strong partnership with imbedded trust within the society is the key of success that is build by open & transparent procedures.

In practice, reading the articles related to the old Sun Tzu "the art of war" - how to win the war without having to fight the enemy - is an inspiring philosophy in doing the actual / practical movement to win the war.
Experience in Building AI3 Indonesia Education Network
My first experience in leading a large movement in Indonesia is in building the Asia Internet Interconnection Initiatives (AI3) Indonesia Education Network. Started in 1993 using simple 286s connected to 1200bps radio network, AI3 Indonesia Education Network it is now connecting 20+ educational institutions at an aggregate speed of 3.5Mbps. Although I personally think it is still too slow for most of its applications. No specific funding has been allocated by the government to do these things most are community based self-finance scheme.

AI3 Indonesia Education Network is part of research network with Wide Project, AI3, 
Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) and Asia Pacific Networking Group (APNG). Our research activities are mainly in Internet technology. Several breakthrough technology based on our research activities have been replicated by most Indonesian ISP, such as, the use of WaveLAN 2Mbps links, FreeBSD / Linux as Internet servers etc. The Computer Network Research Group (CNRG) ITB performs researches at physical layers.

In the Internet content, Ismail Fahmi (ismail@itb.ac.id) leads a research work in knowledge management in the ITB’s main library. The Knowledge Management Research Group (KMRG) at digilib@itb.ac.id is formed & leads by Ismail Fahmi. Starts with a Pentium 233MHz, KMRG is now working on a research project funded by IDRC in building a thesis network in Indonesia. It will becoming the core of knowledge infrastructure in Indonesia.

Experiences show that the basic ingredient of success is the process is in involving & building the required human resource imbedded in the movement. In AI3 Indonesia case, Computer Network Research Group (CNRG) is the group behind the activities. It is a group of people naturally selected aim for supporting the internetworking activities at ITB & Indonesia. Replicate the idea of CNRG to other universities / educational institutions is the key of success for others.

Let the students work in the lab. 24 hours playing & learning the technology at their own pace gradually paving the way towards their expertise. Being an expert is not only knowing & understanding the technology. Forcing the students to become a knowledge producer (in the form of articles, books etc.) is a simple philosophy but a very effective one. Forcing a student to become a knowledge producer will automatically force the student to become a good knowledge consumer as well. Putting their produced knowledge in public domain rather than begging for copyright & patens can speed up gradual increase in society acknowledgement. Society rewards would be much satisfying rather than begging for copyright & patens.

Putting knowledge in free platform, the network will naturally grows as knowledge disseminate and make it transparent to the society. The open (free) knowledge is currently being socialized by Indonesia Digital Knowledge Foundation (IDKF) currently distributing 1000+ articles, papers, books in approx. 600Mbyte digital format are stored in many websites including http://idkf.idaman.com, http://idkf.angin.com & http://www.detik.com/net/ has been an inspiring movement for Indonesian knowledge & IT society.
Experience in Building Warung Internet Community
Basic understanding on the practical strategies in building a self-finance network is somewhat understood. AI3 network is not the network for the whole Indonesian society, as it was intended for education & research purposes only. Other scheme must be sought to provide low cost alternatives for the Indonesian to access knowledge & information. It was mid 1999 when I learned that there was a move to beg for another loan to World Bank (as usual) for building Community Telecenters (warung Internet – WARNET) in Indonesia.

Based on the AI3 Network experiences, a mass movement in building WARNET in Indonesia can be initiated by educating & convincing the people that it is a profitable business scheme. Thus, to stop such move in getting the loan from the World Bank – I wrote a book on Internet Kiosk Technology. It was published by PT Elexmedia Komputindo http://www.elexmedia.co.id in early December 1999.

Education processes as well as releasing the business plan (in Excel format) to enable people to learn & fell how to get it right helps many people to start their own WARNET. Started at the end of January 2000, with WARNET seminar at ITB – a long road shows on WARNET technologies is organized by friends in various cities. Asosiasi-warnet@egroups.com mailing list really help the process to make the knowledge more transparent to public & convince the society to build their WARNET.

Transparency is also performed in various levels, including forming a community based Association of WARNET known later as AWARI, fighting for the domain name for WARNET later known as domain war.net.id, fighting for low cost telecommunication access for WARNET which is not answered yet by the Director of PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia, partnership between AWARI and Pacific Satellite Nusantara to provide access to remote WARNETs. Interestingly many people now putting their hand to help in disseminating the knowledge towards WARNET society, including detik.com created kolom warnet, warnet.idaman.com, natnit.net are samples of those who provide significant help in building WARNET society. All of these require dedication by those who do it for the society; I personally resigned from Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB) to dedicate myself in these kind of activities, advocating the IT knowledge to the Indonesian society. No attachment to a certain company, no nothing – I wish there are many more comrades who wish to take much risk to dedicate themselves for building the Indonesian knowledge-based society.

Note that transparency is futile as several ISPs get open flames from WARNET operators as being unfriendly that leads to social punishment towards the ISPs. An open discussion is currently underway to create a Government policy for WARNET in Indonesia. It is interesting to note that a common society consensus can lead to a public government policy force by a transparent society started by making the technology transparent to the society that empower them to build & invest on the infrastructure. In the end, the information access infrastructure can be build without having to rely on any funding from foreign agency such World Bank, IMF etc. I’m sure it is a debatable lesson, but the bottom-line is it proofs that the one at the government higher-level need to learn more on community based social construction not only sitting behind their comfortable desk & creating policy papers.
Internet based psychological warfare against NRM/EPIQ (USAID)
Natural Resources Management (NRM) Program is a USAID’s funded program. A lady named Nurlina N. Purbo (who is my wife), her right has been severely abused by the management of NRM/EPIQ program, namely, Mr. Jim Tarrant (Chief of Party), Mr. Adi Wiyana (Deputy CoP) & Ms. Rita (HRD Specialist).

On May 16, 2000 during her maternity leave, approx 2 weeks before her maternity leave was ended a written request from the NRM/EPIQ management asked her to resigned from her position. By itself, requesting a person to resign during her maternity leave violates the basic human right. Note again that NRM/EPIQ Program a USAID funded program did it. Arguments used by the management as the ground for the resignation request are not solid & not supplied by sound facts. In fact most of the facts are engineered & forced – thus, no resignation has been filed. On May 25, 2000 – she entered the office and found other has taken her job, which violates the basic employment law for women. After negotiating accompanied by her lawyer, in May 28, 2000 NRM/EPIQ finally sent a formal letter to cancel their request for resignation. Confusingly, in May 30, 2000 a formal letter to stating Nurlina being laid off & formally ask her not to come to the office is filed. No permission is granted by the ministry of labor is attached. Again the arguments used are mostly fiction & not supported by solid facts.

Late on May 30, 2000, I started Internet based warfare to make the whole process transparent to the people on the Internet. Fortunately, all requests and debate are documented in written form, thus all documents are OCR scanned and saved on RTF format. With the help from my friends from printed media in yth-wartawan@itb.ac.id the information is disseminated. Detik.com is the first who published it on the Internet, followed by Jakarta Post, Republika, Warta Ekonomi etc. It is a shame a US supported program is actually violated human right & does gender discrimination.

Psychological warfare is not only performed through the media, formal war is disseminated to the US ambassador, USAID Director in Indonesia, Ministry of Human Resource in Indonesia, Ministry of Foreign Affair, Ministry of Forestry, Human Right Commission, etc. In addition to formal war, an informal & effective approach is being performed to various Indonesian mailing lists related to environment as well as all partners of NRM/EPIQ program via Internet with attachment of the softcopy of their own letters. All processes takes only 2-4 days with significant coverage throughout the Indonesian environmental communities, which is really pinned down the image of NRM/EPIQ Program. For the readers who wish to get a softcopy of their letters, please feel free to request it to me onno@indo.net.id.

The management of NRM/EPIQ Program has all their right to answer these flames in public. Unfortunately, in public debate such as this, NRM/EPIQ must show their cleanliness. Although, it is currently (9/7/2K) still an on-going process, but for sure those who are not fair & clean will face both formal justice and social punishment in information-based society. Despite the bitter fight between the management of NRM/EPIQ and Nurlina N. Purbo (my wife), there are many friends within the NRM/EPIQ who support our movement. We cannot open their name, but must thank them for their on-going support.
Summary
IT, computer & Internet are only tools. Human are the prime mover of all activities. Make knowledge transparent at lower level would create surprising effects in self-finance & bottom-up movements in building the required infrastructure to move the society towards Indonesian knowledge based society. A dedicated & committed comrades are needed in all of these activities – unfortunately such profiles are very rare in most Indonesian bureaucrats & leaders. Knowledge in community based social construction, information & psychological warfare are a big help.