Nationalism vs. RIM and BlackBerry...

There is one thing that Tifatul Sembiring (aka TitS) is good for; material for blogposts! The Minister for [Mis]Communication and [Mis]Information has decided that he will appeal to Indonesians sense of nationalism. The thrust of the TitS argument is now one that says "if you are a good Indonesian, and a nationalist one to boot, then you must agree with him on all things RIM and BlackBerry related". Maybe TitS should think about getting some t-shirts made up for his followers to wear in support of his nationalism drive.

The porn issues aside, this whole TitS crusade is about getting RIM to agree to set up servers, database centres and, at least, repeaters in Indonesia. The Minister is convinced that this will allow Indonesian authorities to monitor what its 2 million or so BlackBerry users are doing and saying with their Smartphones. The official line is that this is about helping Indonesia in its fight against corruption, an honourable cause for sure. However, the reality is that this is more about spying and eavesdropping on Indonesian citizens , it is really about the heavy-hand of big brother residing in the shadows and dark abysses of the Internet, it is about control of the populace, it is a cynical attempt to allow government to invade individuals private and personal space.

I was being somewhat flippant yesterday when suggesting that nationalisation might be on the agenda. Nevertheless, the rhetoric seems to suggest that any RIM facility that opens in Indonesia must allow for a majority of Indonesian content, must employ Indonesians, and although not explicitly stated yet, some degree of Indonesian ownership of the local subsidiary. Perhaps, then, the nationalisation of the local subsidiary would not be such a far-fetched proposition.

But, I digress...

What I am wondering is whether the minister has any statistics to support the assertion that BlackBerry Smartphones are primarily used for surfing the Internet for pornography as opposed to their primary design function of facilitating the ability to do business easily?

I have never owned a BlackBerry, and unless RIM was to contact me and offer to give me one for free to review, then I am unlikely to ever own one. But, even those that do not own BlackBerry phones should be alarmed at the Minister's moves against RIM. The simple truth here is that this is just the first step. If TitS is allowed to run roughshod over BlackBerry users then it is only a matter of time before he sets his sights on other Smartphones.

Ho hum...

The KPK & The Police...

It is not like we did not know that this was coming, was it?

The police have finally admitted what we all already knew, they have no recordings! Yes folks, that is right, the police have nothing, they have squat, they have diddly, they are an embarrassment to themselves and to Indonesian law enforcement in general.

So, what did the police offer up as proof that they had done the right thing in pursing this to the n-th degree in order to detain two commissioners of the Corruption Eradication Commission, a copy of phone records and SMS records. Oh dear!

Therefore, the police case was based on the testimony of a man who would seemingly do anything, and say anything to save his skin, by alleging that Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah were on the take to the tune of IDR 5.1 billion, and some phone records, but no recordings. Oh dear!

The last time I checked it was not illegal to make phone calls nor was it criminal to send and receive SMS. Please, tell us that the Chief of Police ordered an investigation to verify that any of these alleged communication were in any way illicit. Please, please, please...Oh dear!

In other words, or just "simple terms", the police have had nothing, and they have had nothing all along. They have victimised two innocent men, they have brutalised their reputations, and they have caused them significant harm for a record of phone numbers and SMS.

Heads should must roll! The Chief of Police needs to be the first head to roll!

Indonesia to Ban Blackberries?

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have moved to ban Blackberry messaging, email, and web browsing services. The belief is that the way Research In Motion (RIM), the owner of Blackberry technology, encrypts this information is a serious threat to security.

The suggestion is that terrorists can use Blackberries to wreak havoc and mayhem. Alternatively, this may just be a case of "big brother" wanting to ensure that it has access to every single thing that you do on your mobile.

Not wanting to be left behind in the draconian law stakes, Indonesia is mulling a ban on Blackberry services on the grounds of security. The Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Authority (BRTI) will be taking the lead in determining whether a ban should be put into place. The idea of a ban is not surprising, and the "national security" card was expected at some point. The move to ban Blackberry services is just part of a much broader assault on the freedoms of ordinary Indonesians to go about their business without government interference.

It should not be to long before all houses are built with glass or perspex walls and curtains are banned in the interests of national security. After all, terrorists might plan their heinous crimes in darkened houses with drawn curtains, and heaven forbid (even with 72 virgins awaiting for some) we cannot have that!

But, on a more serious note, and Blackberry related, it is estimated that there are some 1.2 million Blackberry users in Indonesia. The vast majority of these users are law abiding citizens using their devices for business or pleasure (such as social networking or downloading Indonesian celebrity sex tapes). A ban on Blackberry is likely to encounter stiff resistance, and not only from those downloading porn, but from regular Indonesians who rely on Blackberry services to go about their business. The plan, if it is such, will also harm business and presumably impact on investment.

Interestingly, Barack Obama still uses his Blackberry. My guess is that the encryption services offered by RIM are only the tip of the iceberg on his Blackberry. I would reckon there were probably a couple of addition layers of encryption and other unknown state-of-the-art security features attached to his device.

As an aside, I will need to do a little research. It was not all that long ago that Indonesia was talking about ousting RIM and Blackberry from Indonesia by banning the devices (aka smartphones) if RIM did not open a representative office in Indonesia and go about setting up a mirror site in Indonesia to improve services and decrease end costs to Blackberry users. The research relates to whether that ever went ahead, as my understanding is that there is not a mirror site. I have not read about RIM opening a representative office. I do recall I wrote about this before, so I guess I go back into the RAB files and see what I can come up with.

Anyway, to all my Indonesian followers, friends, and colleagues who are Blackberry users....Big Brother is coming!

SMS -- Price Fixing

The Indonesian Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (KPPU) has issued a decision that finds six mobile operators have engaged in a scheme that has resulted in price fixing for the provision of SMS services. The collusion between the operators has seen some IDR 2.8 trillion or the equivalent of USD 302 million being skewered from unsuspecting mobile and SMS users.

The six operators are Excelcomindo Pratama (XL), PT Telekomunikasi Seluler (Telkomsel), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), Bakrie Telecom, Mobile-8 Telecom and Smart Telecom. I am an XL customer so perhaps I should be more annoyed than I am about this. I knew I was being speared in terms of how much I was paying but paid it anyway.

The KPPU ordered Telkomsel and XL to pay fines of IDR 25 billion each. The KPPU also ordered Telkom, Mobile-8 and Bakrie have to pay IDR 18 billion, IDR 5 billion, and IDR 4 billion, respectively. I guess the lower fines are representative of the size of the role they played in the price fixing scheme.

The fun part here is that the KPPU does not only issue decisions but considers itself to be the arbiter of what the proper costing of an SMS should be. By the KPPU's reckoning the cost of an a 160 character SMS should not be higher than IDR 114. I am not sure that the KPPU has the internal expertise to make these kinds of calculations nor am I sure that its role should be to stipulate the fees that can be charged in a free market.

I have no problem with the KPPU adjudicating whether or not there has been a breach of the law. The market will take care of what prices it can and cannot sustain for SMS messages.

I am looking forward to cheaper SMS messages though!