Misuse Allegation Throws Indonesia’s Rural Internet Penetration Scheme into Question

Students are using internet in the van. Image courtesy of Kompas.com

Though being the third largest democratic country in the world, corruption is still quite big in Indonesia. And now Detik yesterday reported that the ICT ministry’s effort to push internet penetration to the country’s rural areas is being called into question following allegations that the IDR 2.4 trillion (US$246 million) budget is being misused.

The people’s representative (DPR) Commission 1 is proposing to put the ICT ministry’s program on hold until it is thoroughly audited by the supreme audit agency (BPK). The commission argues that the program isn’t meeting its targets and expectations. For example, the equipment used by the “internet vans” – mobile internet cafes that are driven to remote areas – called the District Mobile Internet Service Center (M-PLIK) are not meeting its standards. And some of the vans are not being used properly, with a few of them becoming electricity billing collection vehicles instead.

With the target of building and spreading 1,907 M-PLIK vehicles, 1,061 of them haven’t been realized yet. The progress to build 5,748 District Internet Service Centers (PLIK) is a lot better, with only 418 more to be developed. ¹ This government program started back in March 2010. So it is normal to ask a few questions about the slow progress given the huge budget the ministry has.

In another effort to push internet into rural areas, starting May 1st, the Management of Indonesian Internet Domain Names (PANDI) will launch ‘.desa.id’ web domains to be used by the smallest government unit, villages. PANDI hopes that this will help push more distinctly rural Indonesian content rather than more urban-oriented dominated content.

(Sources: Detik #1 and #2)