Indonesians bank on Facebook

A few months ago, thousands of Indonesians everyday joined several groups supporting two deputies of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), who were framed in a sinister plot.

As of Thursday evening, more than 1.4 million members had joined a Facebook group supporting Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah. This was well above the target of 1 million.

Another time, Facebookers were in hordes supporting Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who was taken to court by an international hospital for complaining about its poor medical service through email.

Not only expressing online support, the groups also donated to a mass coin collection to pay a fine imposed by the court on Prita.

More recently, there have been groups nominating former presidents Soeharto and Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid as heroes.

There are other groups on Facebook such as ones regarding Bank Century to culinary-based groups.
These examples are only a few causes launched by online societies, in this case Facebook, which has attracted many followers in Indonesia.

From Dec. 31, 2009, Indonesia was ranked as having the fourth most Facebook users worldwide.

It has 14.68 million users, according to Nick Burcher, who has published Facebook usage statistics on his blog www.nickburcher.com.

The US has the most users with 101.30 million, followed by the UK with 22.62 million and Turkey with 16.94 million. Trailing Indonesia was France with 14.29 million and Canada’s 14.22 million users.

Indonesia, however, ranked second for the highest 12-month growth at 1,536 percent, second to the Philippines at 2,046 percent. There are 8.38 million Filipinos with Facebook accounts.

A number of lawmakers who have Facebook accounts told The Jakarta Post they welcomed the phenomenon as positive for democracy in Indonesia.

Nasir Djamil of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) at the House of Representatives said it was great that Indonesia stood fourth in Facebook usage worldwide.

“This phenomenon creates a civil society, self-generating without being funded by the state,” he said.

“An online presence influences public policy. This is the real picture of a civil society.”

Nasir said such networks must maintain their solidity because members rarely meet.

Benny Kabur Harman of the Democratic Party said Facebook was a communication medium and tool for the public to express their opinion freely.

“[Facebook] is the people’s tool to control authorities,” he said.

“It is a modern democracy phenomenon from developed coun-tries that has recently entered
Indonesia.”

Ganjar Pranowo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said Facebook encouraged the public to be proactive.

“Those who understand [Facebook] can have virtual communication forums,” he said.

“However, many people forget that Facebook is a public forum. Many of them utter profanities [on Facebook].”

Ganjar said as most Indonesians loved social interaction, Facebook was a great virtual “gathering” opportunity.