Masalah kota, masalah kita – rusuh kota, rusuh kita

Menanggapi kerusuhan di Inggris -yang juga melanda kota dimana kami tinggal di Manchester- saya menulis catatan di bawah ini sebagai reaksi atas berbagai analisis yang gencar muncul di media. Catatan ini saya kirim ke harian Kompas 11 Agustus dan, setelah diedit sana-sini, dimuat tanggal 22 Agustus 2011 (silakan baca di sini). Sebelumnya, juga saya ‘kicau’kan di Twitter, yang diarsip rekan saya mas Suryaden di blognya (di sini).

Selamat menikmati catatan (yang lebih lengkap) ini – semoga berguna.

The return of Big Brother to Indonesia?

The Jakarta Post – Opinion, 30 March 2011
Yanuar Nugroho
Manchester, United Kingdom

Advances in Internet technology have changed the way people live. For many it has brought the appealing promises of global community, democracy and openness.

Many others fear technological threats such as alienated individuals, anarchy, surveillance and repression. The House of Representatives’ proposed intelligence bill is a clear example of the latter.

The bill, if enacted into law, would give the authorities a free pass to monitor conversations and exchanges on the Internet.

Even worse, the bill would give legal justification to the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) to detain anyone suspected of threatening public security based on exchanges on social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

While the very same social media have given birth of a new type of civic engagement globally, in Indonesia, in the eyes of the bill’s drafters, technology is a threat.

Survey: Internet, social media, dan komunitas sipil di Indonesia

Rekan-rekan sekalian, para pegiat Komunitas/Kelompok/Jaringan/Organisasi Masyarakat Sipil di Indonesia,

dimanapun Anda berada

Saat ini kami, Yanuar Nugroho dan Shita Laksmi dari Universitas Manchester UK dan HIVOS, ingin mengundang Anda sekalian untuk berpartisipasi dalam survey untuk mengetahui bagaimana komunitas/kelompok/lembaga/jaringan/organisasi masyarakat sipil di Indonesia memanfaatkan teknologi informasi, khususnya internet dan social media. Survey ini ditujukan untuk komunitas/kelompok/lembaga/organisasi bukan perorangan. Cukup satu orang mengisi untuk satu komunitas/kelompok/lembaga/organisasi.

Ada beberapa kemungkinan mengikuti/mengisi survey ini.

• Pertama, melalui survey online – silakan klik link ini, atau copy and paste-kan pada browser Anda: http://mbs.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_0cEQLkCyokGzZME
• Kedua, melalui form MS-Word. Silakan download di sini dan setelah diisi dan disave, kirimkan kepada saya dan/atau mbak Shita di alamat email kami di bawah.
• Ketiga, melalui form Open Office (ODT). Silakan download di sini dan setelah diisi dan disave, kirimkan kepada saya dan/atau mbak Shita di alamat email kami di bawah.

Localising the global, globalising the local: The role of the internet in shaping globalisation discourse in Indonesian NGOs

Journal of International Development, Early-cite, DOI: 10.1002/jid.1733

Yanuar Nugroho

Abstract

Globalisation arguably brings about socio-economic development but the distribution of these benefits is unequal. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), whose growth has often been closely linked with globalisation, have been outspoken regarding this inequality. Despite clear linkages between NGOs and globalisation, there has been little research aiming at understanding how NGOs engage with the issue of globalisation itself. Using the case of Indonesia, this study aims to uncover how NGOs utilise the Internet to respond to globalisation-related issues. NGOs should understand global issues in their local contexts and rearticulate more saliently for their beneficiaries. Technology can serve this purpose when used strategically. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Ties that Bind: Law, Islamisation and Indonesia’s Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)

Australian Journal of Asian Law, (2008), Vol 10 (2): 233-267
Najwa Shihab, Yanuar Nugroho

Abstract

There are clear indications that Indonesia’s Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera or PKS) has shifted from being a hardline (garis keras) Islamist party, to take a more moderate stance, with significant changes to its platform. Prominent among these are decisions to step back from earlier demands for the enforcement of Islamic law and the creation of an Islamic state in Indonesia, as well as major modifications to doctrinal positions relating to the legal status of women as leaders, and formal relations with non-Muslims. This article investigates the factors that have contributed to this shift, and argues that it is a result of political processes in Indonesia that compel PKS to moderate its platform to expand its constituency. It is also argued that an ideological transformation has taken place within PKS, that the transformation is genuine, albeit contested internally, and that it is probably necessary for electoral success.

Authors

Najwa Shihab is an Indonesian journalist specialising in law, politics and social change. She has been working as an anchor and host of political talk shows on an Indonesian national television network. She is currently undertaking a Masters program in the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne.

Yanuar Nugroho is Research Associate with the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at the University of Manchester. His research interests include new media innovation and social change, focusing on civic politics and democracy. He is also active in the Indonesian NGO movement and is associated with Business Watch Indonesia (BWI), Uni Sosial Demokrat and ELSPPAT.

This article is dated 2008, but was just out in September 2009 :-). Read the full article here, or here. Or if you cannot get the access, email me or Najwa and we perhaps can share the pre-publication proof for you – depending what it is for .. 🙂

Hubs and wires: Internet use in Indonesian NGOs is strengthening civil society

Two days after the tsunami hit the northern tip of Sumatra on Boxing Day 2004, Yayasan AirPutih (airputih.or.id ) began working quietly, far from publicity, to reconstruct the communication backbone destroyed by the disaster. Using VHF/UHF radio, V-Sat and wireless technology, AirPutih restored communication in Aceh, making its first Internet broadcast on 30 December 2004. This was in spite of the radio silence policy imposed by the local military and government. Yayasan AirPutih also provided the first free satellite telephone and wireless Internet connection in Banda Aceh for humanitarian relief organisations working in the area and continued to do so until it ran out of money. In addition, Yayasan AirPutih played a vital role in establishing the first media centre (acehmediacenter.or.id ) which relayed to the world what happened at ‘ground zero’, channelled support and coordinated humanitarian aid. Without Yayasan AirPutih, the reconstruction of an information infrastructure and initial relief in Aceh after the disaster would have been impossible.

The urgent need to reconstruct Aceh’s information infrastructure, and in particular to provide Internet access, reflects the importance of this technology to the work of both Indonesian and foreign NGOs and aid organisations. Yet Internet use among Indonesian NGOs is a relatively recent phenomenon. It is only in the last decade or so that the Internet has became more widely available and the technology adopted by Indonesian NGOs. However, in that time, Internet use has had a significant impact on the organisations and their work.

Read the full article in INSIDE INDONESIA here.

krisis global tak berdampak ke TKI di inggris? yang bener aja …

siang sampai sore hari ini saya mendapat telepon dari tanah air beberapa kali. kalau tak salah hitung, ada 8 atau 9 kali, dari orang yang berbeda-beda dan dua diantaranya dari media massa. ada kemiripan semua isi telepon itu. awalnya, semua bertanya, “apa benar tak ada dampak krisis ekonomi saat ini di inggris?“. saya jawab, “tidak benar“. lalu saya tanya balik, “kenapa?” lalu dijawab, “kompas yang bilang itu“. saya menukas, “ngawur itu. sudah pasti kompas salah.” lalu ditanggapi lagi, “lha ini dari wawancara mereka yang bekerja di ingris kok“. lalu saya menukas lagi, “lha yang diwawancarai yang nggak ngerti situasinya.” lalu yang bikin saya shock, “lha bukannya kamu juga diwawancarai?”

awal keruntuhan ..?

membaca berita hari ini tentang disahkannya undang-undang pornografi yang kontroversial oleh dpr, saya hanya bisa menundukkan kepala. setelah berbagai upaya, debat, hingga protes, tampaknya hanya segelintir wakil rakyat yang memahami duduk perkara uu pornografi ini – dan mereka pun tak sanggup menghentikan arus deras mayoritas dewan yang membutakan diri pada realitas bangsa majemuk ini.

masih soal RUU pornografi

di bawah ini statement KWI (konferensi waligereja indonesia) tentang RUU pornografi. saya catat di sini bukan karena saya seorang katolik 🙂 tetapi karena keprihatinan mendalam tentang diskursus pornografi yang kini sudah menjadi “kendaraan politik”.

Network Dynamics in the Transition to Democracy: Mapping Global Networks of Contemporary Indonesian Civil Society

This paper seeks to make transparent the mutually reinforcing relationships between global civil society, democracy and network society, which are often implicit in extant theories. The concept of a ‘global civil society’ cannot be separated from the promotion of democracy. Global civil society itself is one of the most explicit instances of the emergence of network society in the modern age and democracy lies at the very heart of what constitutes a network society. However, very little has been said about how these apparent mutually reinforcing relationships arise. Focusing on the case of Indonesia during the fraught regime change from authoritarianism to democracy, we investigate the role of transnational and national civil society organisation during the periods of pre-reform, reform and post-reform. Using multi-methods, including social network analysis and interviews with civil society activists and networkers, we discover a less encouraging picture of these relationships and conclude that the forging of this virtuous circle has some obvious gaps. We attempt to account for these apparent gaps in this mutually reinforcing relationship in terms of different modes of political participation. We suggest that some forms of ‘chequebook activism’ characterised the global civil society role during an abrupt and bloody regime change.

Read the full paper in the Sociological Research Online (Vol 13 Issue 5) here.

The Internet and mobilisation of direct action

Among the strategic uses for the internet that Indonesian CSOs carry out is mobilising direct action. A salient example of this is the campaign against violation of human rights, forced disappearances, repression towards labourers and trade unions and campaigns for promoting gender equality, women’s rights, environment sustainability amongst others. The targets are typically government, companies and military bodies. In general, the campaign is performed by submitting an online protest on the web or circulating the issues through various mailing lists asking for support to pressurise government, parliament, military and/or companies to reconsider their actions.

IGJ and GJU: Shaping civil society views on globalisation issues

The Institute for Global Justice (IGJ) is a research-based advocacy NGO established in 2001, facilitated by INFID and some individual members of the Indonesian NGOs Monitoring Coalition on World Trade Organisation (Koalisi Ornop Pemantau WTO, or KOP-WTO). Rooted in Indonesian social movement and aimed as a part of global civil society network, IGJ envisions a ‘global justice order through social movements’ and aims to ‘deconstruct globalisation and facilitate social transformation in order to be critical towards globalisation through research, advocacy, education and networking activities’. There are three objectives that IGJ aspires to achieve, i.e. the development of critical awareness of the public about globalisation; the existence of local, national and global policy to protect and to appreciate life values and livelihood and a new world order based on pluralism, diversity, sustainability and justice (IGJ, 2001).

INFID, NusaNet, and its advocacy network

International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) was initially formed in June 1985, under the name of INGI (Inter-NGO Conference on IGGI Matters), by several Indonesian NGOs (YLBHI, WALHI and Sekretariat Bina Desa) in co-operation with a number of Dutch NGOs (NOVIB, CEBEMO, HIVOS and ICCO). INGI was (and INFID is) an open and pluralistic network of 60 NGOs based in Indonesia and 40 NGOs based in other countries mostly belong to IGGI (Inter Governmental Group for Indonesia, previously – now CGI, Consultative Group for Indonesia—a consortium of donor countries). INGI transformed into INFID in 1992, following the dismissal of IGGI by the Indonesian government and the formation of the CGI (Hadiwinata, 2003:98-100). Since its establishment INFID has been providing input and recommendations on development issues to the donor countries of Indonesia by monitoring the use of bilateral and multilateral loans as well as the pledging sessions for new loans.

Weighing impacts of Internet appropriation in Indonesian CSOs

Surman and Reilly (2003) offer a simple framework to understand different extents of Internet use in CSOs by posing three steps in a ‘ladder’, i.e. access, adoption and appropriation. While Camacho’s and Surman’s model offers simplicity to understand different levels that CSOs should use to maximise the benefit of using the ICT, the model proposed by this study provides more details in comprehending the course of actions involved during the innovation-decision process when CSOs (in this instance, Indonesian) adopt the Internet technology until they fully appropriate it. What matters here, empirically, is the impact of such adoption and use on the performance of the organisation. Survey data shows that the overall effect of the Internet use may support the argument that the Internet has been used as a ‘convivial medium’ for CSOs, as concluded by Lim (2003) following Illich’s prophetic vision on human-technology relation (Illich, 1973).

Framing attributes of Internet adoption in CSOs: Miles’ approach

How can perceived attributes [in the adoption of the Internet in Indonesian CSOs] be explained within diffusion theory and CSO study at the same time? Ian Miles (1996) provides an insight to understand competing perspective in ICTs. In his work, he departs from the concern about the classic debate on ‘consensus v. conflict’ which has long been pathological in social science –that in fact also perfectly matches with the spectrum of ‘activism paradigm’ in CSOs*.

Indonesian CSOs – Formal status as strategy

The survey (of 268 CSOs during this study) shows that 73.13% of respondent CSOs are formally registered organisations. While this may sound strange recognising that many social movement organisations are informal (Crossley, 2002; Davis et al., 2005; Della-Porta and Diani, 2006), interviews may be able to provide some explanation. The program manager of Yayasan SET explained explicitly that, “in legal terms, all [CSOs] are foundations. What we have [termed as] NGOs, LSMs, CSOs – they are all [legally registered as] foundations” (Kristiawan, interview, 28/10/05). Kristiawan’s explanation confirms findings from previous work. In their attempt to escape from government control, there was a period when many Indonesian CSOs felt it necessary to formally register with the notary as a foundation (yayasan) as this would provide a necessary legal basis for the organisations’ existence and at the same time ‘exempted’ them from current laws aimed at controlling CSOs’ activities (Bunnell, 1996:198; Eldridge, 1995:7-8; Hadiwinata, 2003:95-96).

Indonesian CSOs – Blooming activism

… apabila usul ditolak tanpa ditimbang
suara dibungkam, kritik dilarang tanpa alas an
dituduh subversif dan mengganggu keamanan
maka hanya ada satu kata: lawan!

post scriptum

It was one day in the mid of May 1998, the year of living dangerously in Indonesia following the prolonged 1997 economic crisis which led to severe socio-political calamity. During the days of riots and mayhem, I found myself on the street of Jakarta with thousands students and social activists, challenging the government to cease power. During a severe attack by military, we were forced back from the famous “Semanggi” bridge in the central Jakarta. A violent strike forced us to retreat and hide, otherwise being targeted by the real bullets. We then hid in the morgue at the Jakarta Hospital near Atmajaya University. To our panicking mind, hiding in the place of dead bodies was the only way to keep safe from the armed military personnel who ran after demonstrators violently. I honestly thought that it would not be long before they found us there.

matinya akal sehat – RUU Pornografi

saya mendapat posting RUU pornografi di bawah ini dari seorang kawan. RUU ini barusaja diserahkan oleh DPR pada pemerintah, yang setelah mengeluarkan draft RUU sandingan dan membahasnya dengan DPR, akan mengesahkannya. jika anda merasa ada yang tidak beres dengan RUU ini, bersuaralah!

On Civil Society

B. Herry-Priyono, an Indonesian scholar, writes this extremely interesting article in The Jakarta Post, scrutinising what is prevailed as ‘civil society’, especially in the current context of Indonesia. Intellectually inspiring, and provoking. Enjoy!