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Our presence at Pesta Blogger 2008
The Jakarta Globe
Sunday 2008-11-24 15:16:03
Forum Urges Indonesians to Harness Power of Blogs
Putri Prameshwari
Blogs may be the most efficient tool to campaign on political issues but not many Indonesians are taking advantage of them, a forum at a bloggers’ gathering in Jakarta over the weekend concluded.
Martin Manurung, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, who blogs at www.martinmanurung.com, said blogs could be an important campaigning tool, but few politicians in Indonesia were using them due to the low level of technological knowledge in the country.
“The Internet is found mostly only in the big cities,” Manurung said.
Speaking at Pestablogger ’08, a one-day event which gathered 1,500 bloggers from across Indonesia, Manurung said blogs could be used as a medium to attract the younger generation to be more involved in the country’s political situation.
Jeff Ooi, a Malaysian lawmaker who is also a prominent blogger in his country, said politicians in Malaysia had taken up blogging to keep themselves in touch with their target audience.
“They don’t want to detach themselves from the younger generation, who no longer read newspapers,” he said.
Through www.jeffooi.com, Ooi has been using the power of blogging to build a political career, criticizing the Malaysian government while making his way up the parliamentary ladder with the opposition Democratic Action Party.
Ooi said he saw a bright future for Indonesia’s blogs to become an alternative arm to existing traditional media such as newspapers and television.
“The traditional and alternative media in Indonesia support each other,” he said, adding that newspapers in his country often felt challenged by the rising popularity of blogs and online media.
Regulation was an issue both the government and bloggers must take seriously, Ooi said.
“We have to be very careful,” he said. “Bloggers are not immune to lawsuits such as defamation.”
The spread of information through blogs has attracted debates on its reliability, as copyright issues and regulations are still confusing.
Indonesia’s government has regulated Internet transactions through the Law No. 11/2008 on Information and Electronics Transaction, but bloggers say they feel no necessity for restrictive regulations.
Budi Putra, a veteran Indonesian journalist who writes for www.tempointeraktif.com, said that while blogs are identified as an alternative form of media, bloggers should not stray from their own area of expertise.
“Write only what you know about,” he said at the forum, “and you’ll be safe.”
Earlier this month, Wicaksono, chairman of Pestablogger ’08 , said bloggers in Indonesia had an unspoken agreement to warn each other through the comment system if anyone should make irresponsible statements in their blogs.
Source: The Jakarta Globe
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