2010-04-07T04:27:00.000-07:00

Young Indonesians fight bombers by internet (Australia Network News)

An internet movement by young Indonesians fighting terrorism has picked up more than 140,000 members on the Facebook social networking site in less than two weeks.

Supporters believe it can become a key to tackling violence. Indonesia Unite began as a reaction to the recent hotel bombings in Jakarta.

Some have described it as the "second sumpah pemuda", or Youth Pledge, recalling the declaration in 1928 when young people across the archipelago pledged their allegiance to the unity of Indonesia.
But if the 1928 congress took three years to achieve its declaration, it only took two hours for Indonesia Unite to be the most popular topic on the microblogging site Twitter.

It took only one week to reach more than 100,000 members on the Facebook page, with a growth rate of 15,000 people a day.

One of the movement's supporters is Enda Nasution, often called the father of Indonesian blogging, and he says that even though the movement is growing at a very fast rate, for him this is only the beginning.

"This is a spontaneous reaction of the bomb . . . (and the) online generation in Indonesia is saying that we're not afraid," he told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program.
"This spontaneous reaction has now built a website, a Facebook page, and this will keep on developing.

"There is already a T-shirt design, a song, and hopefully it can become a movement that is more real and can be accessed by the wider population."

The theme song, Kami Tidak Takut (We're Not Afraid), is by Indonesian rapper Panji Pragiwaksono, who is sending his message about young Indonesians fighting terrorism to the rest of the world on YouTube.

When blogger Enda speaks of the wider population, he speaks of the 200 million, or 90 percent, of Indonesians who are not connected to the internet. He sees this as an opportunity, not an obstacle.

But for those who have internet, it is critical that the battle does not stop with online browsing, he says.

"There are those who say the young generation who are following this movement might feel that they've done enough by adding a hashtag on their Twitter post, or adding the flag on their avatars," he says.

"But these are not enough, so we need to follow these up with something more concrete."

2010-04-07T04:04:00.000-07:00

Your browser does not support iframes.

2010-04-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

Your browser does not support iframes.

2010-01-07T21:17:00.000-08:00

Pernak-pernik Indonesia Unite dapat didapatkan disalah satu tempat berikut :