Internet users may account for less than 1 percent of the

Internet users may account for less than 1 percent of the
Indonesian population of 210 million, but this is a country where
some of its Internet Cafes provide free credit cards for
customers to hold cyber-transactions, thus opening the doors
widely to abuses. In fact, Interpol has lodged with the
Indonesian Police at least 150 complaints about abuses of
Internet transactions, mostly credit card frauds or "cardings".

This is also a country that does not have a law on cyber
crime. "So far, we have been able to handle less than 15 percent
of those reported crimes," according to Iman Santosa of the
Indonesian Police Headquarters. Why? "Because they're difficult
to handle," Iman said recently. Very often, "the victim was the
card owner in the United States, the fraud was committed through
Internet in Yogyakarta, the perpetrator purchased goods from
online shops in Japan, and asked that they be delivered to
Jakarta."

Suspects in those cases are usually charged under the articles
of 372, 378, 263, 362 and 480 (on forgery, fraud and theft) of
the existing Criminal Code.

Indonesia has reportedly been identified as the second
country, after Ukraine, with the most cases of cyber crime,
according to Budi Rahardjo, an information technology expert at
the Bandung Institute of Technology. Indeed Indonesia is finding
itself overwhelmed by the sudden outburst of Internet crimes that
originated mostly in Bandung and Yogyakarta.

To give credit where it is due, the Indonesian Police has
prepared itself for the upsurge by establishing a cyber crime
unit under its IT sub-directorate that has been working for the
past year. In fact, according to AKBP E. Brata Mandala, head of
IT Sub-Directorate of Directorate of Special Crimes of the
Indonesian Police Headquarters, the sub-directorate was conceived
15 years ago when the police predicted then of the birth of "hi-
tech crimes."

The 1997 economic crisis was to blame for the late development
of the unit, Brata said.

Besides, the government has attempted to circumvent this legal
void by some ad-hoc measures such as establishing cooperation
with other countries. Last week Australia and Indonesia signed a
memorandum of understanding that would help the two countries
fight transnational crimes such as the trafficking of women and
children, firearms smuggling, terrorism and cyber crime. The MOU
on Transnational Crimes would provide a framework for preventing,
investigating, disrupting and dismantling transnational crime
involving both countries, according to Australian Justice
Minister Chris Ellison.

Late last year, the Non Aligned Movement Center for South-
South Technical Cooperation agreed to build e-linkages among
developing countries as a way to boost connectivity and overcome
the digital divide. That meant greater opportunities for Internet
usage and e-network for e-commerce and e-transactions.

Indeed, it took only six years for the developing countries of
the Non-Aligned Movement to give birth to 88 million of new users
of the Internet. In India, for instance, 10 percent of its
population now has access to the Internet and cellular telephone,
bypassing the limited growth of fixed line telephones and
enabling farmers to obtain real-time changes in commodity prices.

In Indonesia, a great percentage of Internet Service Providers
have collapsed, especially after the facility Voice over Internet
Protocol was declared illegal; but the number of Internet users
continues to grow even in remote areas as they go hand-in-hand
with the growth of telecommunication shops (Wartel).

This is why questions and concerns about growing cyber crime
are relevant to study.

The European Council Convention on Cyber Crime, signed into
being by 30 countries last November in Budapest, identifies cyber
crimes as:

o Offenses against the confidentiality, integrity and
availability of computer data and system that cover illegal
access, illegal interception, data interference, system
interference, and misuse of device. Included in this category is
hacking.

o Computer-related offenses such as forgery and fraud;

o Content related offenses such as child pornography;

o Offenses related to infringement of copy rights and related
rights including intentional attempt and aiding these offenses.

In short, a cyber crime is defined as a crime related to
technology, computers and the Internet.

Legal expert Mardjono Reksodiputro recently suggested during a
workshop at the Surabaya University that cyber crime be treated
as either:

o An ordinary crime using the hi-tech means of computer
technology-which our Criminal Code (with some amendment) would be
quite adequate to handle, or:

o A new breed of criminal acts that need a new, comprehensive
legal framework to overcome its special characteristic of
technology sophistication that would continue to develop -- which
means that Indonesia needs a separate provision outside the
existing Criminal Code.

Another approach, however, would be to combine the two
approaches concurrently as the U.S. government has done by
amending its 1933 Securities Act and, at the same time, launching
its "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act".

There are about 20 other countries such as Australia, Canada,
Japan, India, and the Philippines that have updated their legal
instruments by introducing provisions on computer-related crimes
but there have not been many occasions when this new development
was tested in court.

The Indonesian government is working to prepare legislation on
telematics such as draft bill on electronic transaction and draft
bill on e-sign (digital signatures). The Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights has reportedly experimented with the concept in its
administration. This is in addition to the work in progress on
the new Criminal Code draft.

Several experts, including Budi Rahardjo and Mieke Komar of
Padjajaran University, have also gotten together drafting the
Cyber Crime Bill-an effort that reportedly has yet to be taken
seriously by the government.

What would be an equally important step in the campaign to
fight the growing cyber crime in the absence of cyber crime code
is to improve implementation of the existing legal instruments
because, regardless of whether it's a low-tech or hi-tech crime,
a damage and a loss has been inflicted on victims.

However, the law and government-sponsored measures are only a
partial answer to the problem-IT-based organizations have to
maintain their vigil against the onslaught of cyber crime threats
that face them once they enter the cyber world.

In fact, it is important for any institution or individual
entering the cyber world to have cyber security plans. At the
organizational level, this means a commitment to train personnel
to handle sensitive data, record transactions, and build security
technology such as a firewall system, anti-virus software, and
authentication services.

2. Shidiq -- Debate on IMF role: Not between good and evil
1 x 32 48 pt Bodoni

IMF debate beyond good and evil

Akhmad Rizal Shidiq
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London

Despite its big impact on Indonesians, the lack of debate on
the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is somewhat
astonishing. Nevertheless, the recent dispute among the cabinet
members on whether Indonesia should extend the contract with the
IMF offers a good opportunity for people to discuss the cost and
benefits of its involvement in the country.

Media coverage leads to the misleading picture that the debate
is between good and evil. Mixed with some nationalism and
populist sentiments, the debate brings us nowhere but the
controversy itself. A more productive discourse would be to
engage in a struggle to find the best among the good.

As Amartya Sen wrote in 1998 on the U.S. political economy and
the European Union, this is a typical problem, a social dilemma,
particularly between financial conservatism and social
commitments to equity. Here, the tension is between the
supporters of IMF contract extension that represent the financial
conservatism and its opponents.

The former position is clearly stated by Coordinating Minister
for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti in his statement on the
four risks of ceasing cooperation with the IMF: The freezing of
funds and its negative impact on foreign reserves;
inconvertibility of the rupiah; possible discontinuation of the
funds from donors, including the World Bank; and the increasing
state budget deficit, eventually leading to high inflation,
Kompas reported on June 12.

In many respects, the stabilization policy taken by the IMF
reflects financial conservatism, through the proposal of subsidy
cuts and high interest rates to deal with the balance of payment
crisis.

The opposite social commitment to equity has been represented
by State Minister of National Development Planning Kwik Kian Gie
who mainly questioned the injustice of the bank restructuring
scheme that brings huge domestic debt, which will become the
public burden.

Earlier he also cited the unfairness in the way the government
handles stubborn debtors. The main line of this argument is who
gains from the stabilization policy, and who pays for it.

Certainly there are some truths in each position. Yet there
has been a lack of serious debate among intellectuals on the IMF
role, let alone regarding its ideological stand; for instance
debate on the macroeconomic model of the IMF and its impact on
growth. Not many, for instance, challenge the IMF's core
arguments and model for stabilization known as financial
programming, originally based on the Polak model in 1957, which
reflects how the IMF sees the economy work.

We need a debate, supported by facts, on such underlying
premises of the stabilization policy. Whether the IMF is
successful can be inferred from those premises and the
development of indicators -- not from a battle of rhetoric.

Yet to prevent such financial analysis becoming alienated from
the public, a decision involving the people is also important,
one which enables people to express their concerns and hardships.

However, under the current political system it is hard to
imagine such participation, no matter how miserable people's
lives are after the crisis and after IMF involvement in the
government's stabilization policy.

Given the frustrating attitude of legislators despite their
high salary, they cannot be expected to represent us either.
Given the lack of intellectual debate, legislators' participation
in the debate would likely be mere political commodity anyway,
thus further alienating the public.

Nevertheless a wider debate among academics and the public is
crucial to reduce the unnecessary negative reaction of the debate
within the economy, as well as missing opportunities and momentum
for economic recovery. This is extremely relevant if we consider
that the process of economic recovery is as important as the
outcome of the recovery itself -- and if democratization is
integral to any economic stabilization policy.

3. Aya -- Suu Kyi should open up dialogue with public
1 x 32 48 pt Bodoni

Suu Kyi should share her thoughts

Aya Kimura
The Asahi Shimbun
Tokyo

More than six weeks have passed since Aung San Suu Kyi,
democracy leader of Myanmar (Burma), was released from house
arrest by the military junta known as the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC).

On May 6, hundreds of people waited for her in the sweltering
heat in front of the National League for Democracy (NLD)
headquarters in Yangon (Rangoon). "Daw (honorific prefix for
women) Aung San Suu Kyi!"

For 18 months Suu Kyi held talks behind closed doors with the
SPDC and has now agreed to continue the secret discussions. But
will the people of Myanmar accept this agreement? Once Suu Kyi
has more opportunities to meet the people, she will probably face
growing calls for an explanation.

Suu Kyi reportedly did not consider her release an event of
huge importance since she knew it would not mean total freedom of
her meetings with NLD officials.

Even so, Suu Kyi probably embraced release because she saw the
people's zeal toward democracy waning. She may have been trying
to rekindle their ardor by appearing before them.

The people of Myanmar, where the government keeps a tight lid
on information, must rely on rumor to guess the political and
economic moves. They are invariably disappointed, particularly
after being swayed by the rumors, and feel even more trapped by
the declining economic situation.

Will a democratic regime really come into power? If Suu Kyi
keeps silent, the people's impatience could transform itself into
distrust in her.

During a telephone interview with The Asahi Shimbun on May 20,
Suu Kyi affirmed the "possibility of compromising with military
rule if it is for the sake of the people."

Nevertheless, a week after the interview, on the anniversary
marking its victory of the 1990 general election, the NLD issued
a statement that incorporated its former political platform, such
as confirming the number of parliamentary seats that reflected
NLD's landslide victory.

On the other hand, the SPDC has set out to transfer the
administration while the military retains the leadership. Thus no
clear points of contact between the two parties are in sight. By
continuing to talk to the junta, Suu Kyi may be eying a crucial
policy change in the form of cooperation with military rule.
Perhaps she has kept her lips sealed, regarding it as premature
to seek the understanding of the people.

Yet when she was asked during the telephone interview whether
the people of Myanmar are ready to embrace democratization, she
seemed somewhat offended and replied, "Certainly."

She explained that democracy should not be handed out as a
finished product, but developed together. Suu Kyi once again has
the chance to turn this into reality.

What form of compromise does she have in mind? I hope she will
share her thoughts with the people, who are her strongest ally.