TitS: Kena Deh...

A recent viewpoint from the Economist "In Praise of a Twit" must be a high water mark in Indonesian history for a serving minister of the Indonesian government. But, when one thinks about it, it is a wonder that it has taken this long for Tifatul Sembiring (aka TitS) to be recognised for his wonderful work. TitS is desperate to always be relevant and this is the driving force in his populist nationalist rhetoric invading the Twitter-sphere (the picture reflects his desire to his need to be relevant!)

TitS has a skill that many Indonesian politicians crave for but rarely achieve, the ability to unite liberals and conservatives alike. Sadly, this is not uniting them together but positioning them as diametrically opposed extremes on the pornography debate. There really seems to be little middle ground here as the debate has morphed into one of "you are either with us or you are against us".

There has been plenty of commentary about the TitS vs. RIM / BlackBerry shenanigans. One of the best pieces has been written by Treespotter. It is in Indonesian which makes it for an Indonesian-reading audience. However, many of the points have been made by him in the past in English and you will also find many of those points here.

It appears that TitS has had a bit of a victory. RIM the makers of the BlackBerry Smartphone have agreed to block porn on their devices for the Indonesian market. RIM will be up for considerable expense in reconfiguring their devices to comply with the TitS demand. However, it is worth noting that this has to be done in conjunction with the local providers of BlackBerry services. It will be interesting to see how much of the "cost" local providers are willing to bear in order to see compliance happen. Or is the expectation that RIM will cover all the costs?

Some would consider this victory one for censorship and perhaps point out that this reflects the growing power of more conservative Islamic political forces. To be honest, I am not sure that the arguments here are being made on purely religious or political grounds. Anyways, a Google search using the terms BlackBerry, Islam, and Censorship turned up this image (no offense intended so hopefully none is taken).

Once again, RIM should have just stood its ground and said "No". If TitS had of pushed through with his ban he would have only ensured his legacy as a good source of comedic material for comedians around the world, including the likes of Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Jay Leno and the like in the US. I am sure there are comedians in Europe who are also "taking the piss". But, even more so, all of the politicians and other high-ranking public officials would have begun jumping up and down demanding that TitS pull his head in and do something worthwhile with his time as it is becoming increasingly obvious that the man is getting blinded by the sunshine that he thinks is shining out of his arse.

The reality is that even if RIM blocks porn to its BlackBerry devices there is going to be a negligible effect on overall supply of pornography to the Indonesian consumer. Let's face it, people can still go down to Block M or over to Glodok and buy pirated local and foreign pornographic DVDs until their collective hearts are content or stop beating because of the shock of the sudden release of all that sexual tension. The truly sad thing is that TitS still does not get that a national internet filter is not ever going to happen until such time as their is only one government controlled entry point to the Indonesian marketplace.

Probably more worrisome than RIM's capitulation on the porn filters is that TitS is touting that RIM has also agreed to allow the Indonesian government to intercept messages and other communications on BlackBerry devices. There is no need for BlackBerry to make any such concessions to TitS. The reality is that if there was a lawful reason for an interception to occur then a warrant issued by a legitimate court would see RIM comply. Besides, there is little doubt that Indonesia has agencies both public and spook-like that would already  have the capabilities to intercept communications without the communicator knowing about it so there really is no need or reason for the Minister of [Mis]Communication and [Mis]Information to have this power as well.

There will be a time in the future, perhaps it is now, that Indonesians when they think of TitS will collectively sigh and say in a most colloquial of ways "kena deh!"