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.