The thin edge of the wedge ...
........... is controlled by thick people.

The message below says that because folk are liable to get steamed up by a short film which expresses the bigotry of one Dutchman, then by the authority of the Minister of Information and Communications thou shalt not access seven websites which host a zillion other videos you may want to watch in case you find just the one.

Bapak/Ibu Pelanggan IndosatM2 Yang Terhormat,

Kami mengucapkan terima kasih atas kepercayaan Bapak/Ibu yang telah memberikan kesempatan kepada kami untuk menyediakan layanan Multimedia bagi Bapak/Ibu.

Merujuk pada Surat Menteri Kominfo kepada Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia (APJII) Nomor: 84/M.KOMINFO/04/08 tanggal 2 April 2008 Perihal: Pemblokiran Situs dan Blog Yang Memuat Film Fitna, maka kami memutuskan untuk menutup sementara akses ke beberapa situs sebagai berikut:
---1. Youtube
---2. MySpace
---3. Multiply
---4. Video Google
---5. Liveleak
---6. Rapidshare
---7.Themoviefitna.com

Untuk kenyamanan Bapak/Ibu, kami senantiasa mencari cara yang lebih tepat untuk melakukan pembatasan secara akurat tanpa mengganggu kualitas koneksi.

Untuk informasi terkini mengenai status pemblokiran akses atas situs – situs tersebut diatas, Bapak/Ibu dapat mengunjungi website kami www.indosatm2.com.

Demikian kami sampaikan dan atas perhatian serta dukungan yang telah diberikan, kami ucapkan terima kasih.

Salam hormat,

Takim Parulasbawa
PTH Manger (sic) Customer Service

Let's ignore for the moment that the Electronic Information and Transaction Law has only just been passed by the Legislature and has yet to be signed into law by the President. We can also ignore the lack of regulations which make this new law enforceable, regulations which are expected to take a year to formulate.

The major question is whether we live in a secular or sharia state.

If the former, on what grounds has the letter been issued? If the latter, when was it decreed?

In both situations, this is overkill. Preventing a few, a very few, folk from watching a poorly made video is not going to prevent demonstrations. The police have arrested a dozen youngish lads who recently burned the Dutch flag outside the Dutch embassy in Jakarta. Few, if any!, have actually seen the movie Fitna.

And even fewer of us have sufficient bandwidth to download any video!

What next? Blogger?

What is clear is that Takim Parulasbawa, who signed the letter, is an admirer of the dog in the manger.
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Mea Culpa.
I should read a bit closer rather than making assumptions. Rob Baiton has left a comment below which points out that "the Minister issued the 'Letter' under Article 21 of the Telecommunications Law (No. 36/1999) which contains similar provisions to Article 27 of the recently passed not yet enacted ITE Bill."

Still doesn't change my argument though. But it does raise the question of why they (Roy Suryo?) have bothered wasted the legislature's time when there are many more vital issues facing Indonesia.
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Postscript
As the days flow by the comments and emails flood in. Rather than link to all the folk who've posted their own critique of the w*nkers who deign to determine what our morals should be, I'd like to reintroduce André Vltchek, "a novelist, journalist, filmmaker and playwright", who has access to the Fourth Estate. In other words, he can get his comments published on overseas sites which cannot be blocked by the petty bureaucrats here without them creating a diplomatic incident.

Read The New Face of Indonesia’s Islamic Fundamentalism: Pornography Ban Ignores the Starving >here<.   ¶ 5:00 PM