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!

Arab Investors and the Jakarta Monorail Project

The activity at the House of Representatives (DPR) over the past week or so in passing legislation may actually pay off in both the figurative and literal senses. The DPR managed to pass a bill on Syariah-based Bonds which sets out the basic regulatory framework for the issue of Syariah Bonds or as they are more commonly known, Sukuk. This it seems has caught the eye of Muslim investors (Dubai and United Arab Emirates) who are keen to make halal investments and this provides an opportunity for that.

The Jakarta Monorail project has been a fiasco from the start. It is scheduled for completion in 2010 but that just is not going to happen! But it might just get finished if investors can be found. However, it is worth noting, as Dilli has done on his blog (picture also stolen / borrowed from Dilli's Blog), that if investors are going to come on board then they need to do so fast as some of the pylons that are supposed to support the monorail have started to mysteriously disappear.

I have to say I am not sure how you make a huge pylon disappear but it is probably a good David Copperfield or David Blaine or Cris Angel illusion!

The monorail was part of the comprehensive Jakarta traffic management plan. But the fact that the monorail has been plagued with problems from the outset brings into question the seriousness of the government and the comprehensiveness of their plan.

Anyone who has tried to travel around town using public transport soon comes to understand why people prefer private cars! If you add into this mix a little bit of rain then it just becomes traffic chaos. Will the monorail alleviate some of this chaos, who knows, but it is up in the air (literally and figuratively) so perhaps it cannot do any more harm!

Yet, the reality is, even with potential Arab investors wanting to come on board, it remains unclear as to whether the Central or Jakartan Governments want to back the monorail financially as the difficulties so far would be indicative of some serious risk management concerns.