A comment on my blog suggested that this was an expat driven thing in terms of expats jumping up and down about rights and freedom of expression and the like. However, I beg to differ in that I think the primary players (and more than likely only players) here were Indonesians and bloggers were chief among them…

I did not attend the recent meeting (do not even know if I would have been invited had I wanted to) between the Minister and Bloggers. But, by all accounts it seems that it was a meeting with some intense and animated discussion. The point here is that the knowledge, the know-how, and the expertise on these matters is available locally and the talent is home-grown (some might be overseas educated but so what gitu lo! — who cares where they were educated?)…

Simply, the cyber community at large will benefit from active Indonesian voices in this area!

Besides, apparently no sooner had blocks gone into place, back doors opened to restore access. It is one of those are you smarter than a fifth grader things, and I am not! But I am told that getting around the blocks was something any 10-year old with some computer knowledge could do. True or not I do not know, but the point is that perhaps the Internet is going to be a much more difficult beast to contain than anyone might have previously imagined.

Merdeka!