Few legislators are Internet literate

Few legislators are Internet literate

PC Naommy, Jakarta

Internet experts expressed concern on Monday over the lack of
understanding among bureaucrats and legislators of the benefits
of cyber-technology.

"It's sad and surprising to know that only a few legislators
have e-mail accounts and are aware of the benefits of the
Internet," said Judith MS, the chairwoman of the Indonesian
Internet Kiosk Association (AWARI), on Monday.

Citing as an example, Judith said that only nine of 84 Central
Java legislators had e-mail accounts.

Judith lamented the lack of awareness among officials of how
information technology could lighten their workload and promote
good governance in the country.

"Good implementation of e-government would minimize or even
eradicate corruption and collusion at all levels of government,"
said Johar Alam, of Internet Data Centra Indonesia (IDC).

Johar gave examples of the processing of notarial documents in
the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. With e-government,
applications could be processed through the ministry's website,
eliminating the opportunity for collusion and corruption, because
the computer would automatically process the application and a
record would be immediately available.

Johar, however, said that the idea of e-government had drawn
protests from "people who usually take advantage of the practice
of collusion and corruption".

"People who feel threatened by the implementation of the
online processing have even made threatening phone calls to
software makers because the system has taken away their
'additional' income," said Johar.

Despite all this, Internet experts still think that the
Indonesian people should become more Internet literate. To pursue
that end, IT societies in Indonesia, including the Indonesian
Internet Service Providers' Association (APJII), AWARI, and
Telkom, have set up many programs for school-based Internet
education.

A team from the National Internet Conference and Education
(NICE) plans to provide Internet connections to 250,000 schools,
from elementary schools to colleges throughout the country within
the next two years.

This means that 50 million students will be linked to the
Internet, which would outstrip the number of Internet users in
other countries such as in Singapore with approximately five
million users.

Telkom has also started a program called Internet Goes to
School a month ago at its regional branch offices in West Java.
Through this program, students and teachers can get free Internet
education for three weeks at all branch offices of Telkom.

The three-week program has attracted about 900,000
participants throughout West Java province. "We are currently
focussing on training students and teachers how to operate the
internet and all the basic stuff related to the technology," said
Suryatim Setiawan, the director of business and trade at Telkom.

Suryatim said that Telkom is currently doing a feasibility
study on their plan to provide schools nationwide with Internet
access.

"We are still negotiating with several parties, such as
producers of personal computers and the state electricity company
to create a sustainable model that would work for every school,"
said Suryatim.