Facebook Booming in Indonesia, but Also Controversial

In the past year, the number of active Facebook users worldwide has doubled to 150 million. Indonesia, which has a population of 235 million, has 1.3 million users.

Laksmi Pamuntjak, who has written columns and articles on politics, film, food, classical music and literature for Tempo Magazine, is one of them. She logs on to Facebook everyday and says it is a good way of "tracking down old friends and renewing ties, of promoting a cause -- political, social or personal -- and of learning about local and world issues."

Fatwa against Facebook

However, not everybody is in agreement with her. In May, hundreds of clerics from Java and Bali condemned the networking site and called on the country’s religious authorities to issue a fatwa banning Muslims from using Facebook. They said that the site could be used to conduct illicit affairs, flirting or adultery in the name of social networking. The reaction has been subdued and most users have refused to bow down to demands to stop using the site.

Another controversy arose when Prita Mulyasari, a 32-year-old mother of two, was sentenced to jail after being charged with defamation after she complained about treatment she had received at Omni International Hospital and distributed complaint emails online.

Prita was acquitted after spending several weeks in prison but she was later charged with violating a new law on transferring electronic information. She immediately said she would answer a summon to clarify the case.

Resistance to censorship

Laksmi was one of the 100,000 Facebook users who rallied to champion Prita when she was in jail. She is against censorship of Facebook and the Internet: "Freedom of expression is the pillar of individual liberty and of democracy. In Indonesia, in the past few years, there has been an increased tendency towards using Facebook to advance certain political platforms or beliefs."

"This is true in the intensity of discourse around the recent elections; current affairs with a distinct "social injustice" bent such as the case of Prita Mulyasari, who was recently brought to trial for libel by a hospital in Jakarta, the scandal involving Indonesia’s top graft-buster, Antasari Azhar, the debate over the triumph of the anti-pornography law; and a host of cases involving corruption, violence, exploitation, abuse of power, bureaucratic ineptitude, and religious intolerance," she said.

The human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis also supports Facebook: "I don’t think the use of Facebook should be limited to religious teaching only. It would betray the very idea of social networking. However, there should not be a limitation. People mature and become responsible. The abuse of Facebook is an exception, not a rule."

Facebook with all its several merits and demerits is gaining much popularity in Indonesia. Although the clerics may think differently.

Author: Nikki Rattan
Editor: Grahame Lucas