Internet fever grips Indonesian cities

The Internet has become a staple of urban living in Indonesia's major cities since its introduction in late 1994. Despite its popularity among those on the information superhighway loop, the number of actual users among Indonesia's 200 million population is very small. The Jakarta Post's team of reporters Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, T. Sima Gunawan, Stevie Emilia, Benget Simbolon, Ridwan M. Sijabat, Sugianto Tandra, Rani Liliasari and photographer Arief Suhardiman log on to the system to discover more. Additional stories are printed on page 9.

JAKARTA (JP): Dewi, an Indonesian, had a big surprise for her best friend who lives in Miami. She sent her flowers for her birthday. And they were still fresh when they arrived.

You might wonder who the courier was, who did such a good job. Or you might think that Dewi phoned a florist in Florida and placed a delivery order for her friend.

You are wrong.

"I placed the order through the Internet," she said.

If you want to try, just click http://www.rosesplus.com/, one of over 300 virtual florists which offer their service through the Internet. But remember, you must have your credit card ready before placing the order.

Welcome to Cyberspace and its 50 million inhabitants.

The Internet was born in the 1970s out of a United States defense computer network called ARPANET.

Two years ago, about 32 million people linked their computers to the network.

By the turn of the century more than 100 million people are expected to be on-line.

The market potential is tremendous. Hundreds of webpages, or homepages as they are popularly known, are born each minute.

In the last three years the number of Internet users in Indonesia has boomed. In 1994 there was about 2,000 Internet users. Less than a year later the number had swelled to about 15,000.

There are now about 40,000 users in Indonesia and Indonesian- related websites are plentiful.

Subjects covering Indonesian politics and business to sports and entertainment are readily available. The popularity of the medium is obvious when one considers that just by having a computer, modem and subscription to an Internet provider, anyone can have access almost unlimited information on every subject thinkable.

Three years ago most Internet users were from universities. But the focus has shifted to private users.

While two-thirds of Indonesia's Internet users live in Jakarta, the state-owned WasantaraNet has linked all the country's 27 provinces and services 31 cities.

Indonesian businesses have only begun to tap into the massive audience on the net. Major companies and banks are setting up websites.

The Indonesian government has also seen the potential to promote Indonesian tourism and public relations.

At least eight government ministry's have their own websites providing visitors with policy information.

The Ministry of Security and Defense's website (www.hankam.go.id) outlines Indonesia's defense structure and a defense white paper is also available.

The Ministry of Culture and Education opens its website (www.pdk.go.id) with a photograph of a smiling minister Wardiman Djojonegoro. It has an English version on its website and looks at statistics and plans for educating the nation.

The Indonesian Medical Association's homepage (www.idola.id.net/IDI/) includes a question and answer forum.

"Every day we get about 10 questions concerning diseases and health problems," association chairman Azrul Azwar said.

Unfortunately, not all of its members have access to the Internet so the association also copies the questions and distributes them to interested doctors.

"It's not an easy job, but it shows that the public is very interested," he said.

Election

Internet fever has also gripped the Indonesian elections with all three political parties opening a homepage just before the campaign started last month.

The United Development Party leads the way with its well designed and continuously updated website (www.ppp.or.id). It contains several sections including a a special column from party chief Ismail Hasan Metareum and lists of legislature candidates.

The website contains critical essays against government policies. In a recent edition the feature column condemned the government's economic policies for favoring big conglomerates over a policy which focuses on ordinary people.

The dominant Golkar has also set up a homepage (www.golkar.or.id) as has the Indonesian Development Party (www.banteng.org).

But these two sites are poorly maintained and rarely revised. Usually the most up to date information on Golkar's page is a clock counting down the number of days until the election.

Government institutions like the Central Statistics Bureau (www.bps.go.id) and the city administration (www.indo.net.id/government/dki/wel.html) are not lagging behind.

There are no accurate data as to how many Indonesian-related websites there are, but it is believed to be about 10,000.

The Internet has been a windfall for many readers because many Indonesian publications are racing to have their own homepages.

Websurfers can now read Indonesian newspapers and publications for free. There are over two dozen of them on the net.

While the Internet is undeniably useful, it is not perfect.

There are cases in which Indonesian websites have been tampered with by other parties. Other problems are indecent articles or people shopping on the Net using other people's credit card numbers.

Unfriendly net users who oppose Indonesia often break into Indonesian sights and deface homepage displays.

The foreign ministry's Hankam/ABRI Net homepage was broken into by Portuguese hackers.

Although the problem was quickly corrected, the threat lingers. (team)