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| Indonesia is one of the top countries based on the number of Twitter users. (JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno) |
ASEAN must
maximize the use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media to engage the
region's citizens, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Tuesday.
Speaking to
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers on the island
of Bali, Yudhoyono expressed support for the establishment of an ASEAN blogger
community.
"For
the first time, and in contrast to just four decades ago, we are facing a
reality where the frequency and depth of contacts between our citizens -
through cable television, email, Twitter, Facebook - far exceed the formal
contacts between government officials," he said.
"Indonesia,
being the world's second largest Facebook nation and third largest for Twitter,
knows this very well."
ASEAN must
"get into the act" and be "creative and open-minded in
harnessing the power of technology to promote people-to-people contact,"
he said.
"The
establishment of an ASEAN blogger community is one innovative idea, and more
should follow."
ASEAN, with
nearly 600 million people, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The more
developed member-states such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand
have witnessed explosive growth in the use of social networking and
microblogging sites even if overall Internet penetration remains low.
Yudhoyono
often sends mixed messages about free expression and social media.
The centrist
ex-general has warned that the "Internet frenzy" is destroying
traditional values, has backed a crackdown on porn websites and has lashed out
at people who "use online media to spread lies" about corruption.
Human
rights activists criticize Yudhoyono for approving a 2008 law which sets tough
penalties for online defamation, saying it has been used to intimidate critics
and whistle-blowers.
A Human
Rights Watch report released last year cited the example of Prita Mulyasari, a
mother-of-two who was jailed for three weeks and spent a year in litigation for
writing emails to friends about poor hospital treatment.
A Facebook
support group garnered more than 100,000 members, and a court eventually threw
out the case against her. But the supreme court recently reinstated her
conviction and she is now serving six months of probation.
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