Back in November Unspun wrote about Tifatul Sembiring the new “plugged -in, Twittering Information Minister” and wondered where his savvy tech skills would lead him.
Since then he’s Twittered regularly and daily, engaged his supporters and critics, Twitted his muse in the form of #Tweetun and even offered prizes to those who responded to his Tweets.
He’s done what many people would generally think someone who wants to build a following on Twitter should do yet he’s come under lots of criticism and skeptical remarks from the Twittersphere in Indonesia.
Why is this. Hanny grapples with the question in Talking Points below:
The Erosion of Tifatul’s Mystique
December 7th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Tifatul SembiringTifatul Sembiring impressed many people in Indonesia’s online community when he first ascended to the post of Minister of Communications and Informatics.
Each day he would start his mornings, shortly after subuh, Twittering away on what inspires him, and answering questions or complains Twittered to @tifsembiring. He even created #tweettun (a play on the words Twitter and pantun) that he, and many people from Palembang, are partial to.
He also gave away prizes to the most interesting tweets addressed to him and even had some fun by participating in Twitter’s equivalent of trivial pursuit under the topic #TebakBandTranslate (a mass-riddle to guess the name of a certain band; but you need to “free-translate” the clue from Indonesian to English. For instance, “tidak bernada” is beat-less. So the answer to the riddle is “The Beatles”).
Unspun 
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