Apakabar
Apakabar (Indon. For How are you? ) Is an alternative news network that focuses on social and political developments in Indonesia .
Emergence
The Apakabar mailing list started on October 7, 1990 initially as a discussion and news forum under the name Indonesia-L. Founder was John A. MacDougall. From a server in the US state of Maryland , alternative information, news and research approaches, mostly not available in Indonesia, mainly on social and political issues, as well as human rights violations, were sent to those interested in Indonesia. The list quickly spread among Indonesians studying abroad. In the mid-1990s, the former news distribution list became a public mailing list. Along with the advent of the public internet in Indonesia through the spread of warnets , Apakabar also spread to Indonesia. The list became a hodgepodge for news, discussions and comments on the political situation in Indonesia, it comprised witness reports of current events and, not least, served as a platform for mobilizations and for planning actions. Apakabar was also a role model and source of reference for other mailing lists, forums and newsgroups that emerged during this time .
The contributions were neither edited nor censored. The list thus opened up a multitude of new possibilities for criticism and a new form of political actionism against the New Order . It is true that among the subscribers there were also government agents who were supposed to be students. However, they were unable to exercise their influence and were mostly exposed quickly. The army also feared the increasing influence of Apakabar . "Press coverage of military statements about the subversive potentials of the Internet inevitably includes reference to apakabar ." Presumably in response to this, the Indonesian military put their own website online, in which they repeatedly offered "corrections" and postulated that the Indonesian Society should not be duped by this agitation.
reporting
Apakabar was very detailed in the rioting against the headquarters of the Democratic Party (PRD) on May 27, 1996. The later president and daughter of the state's founder, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was to be elected chairman of the party, which, in view of the upcoming elections, represented serious competition for Suharto. At the time, the list already had an estimated 13,000 subscribers. The Apakabar List was the fastest and most comprehensive source of reliable information about what happened. It even contained witness reports directly from the attacked party headquarters. The news spread like wildfire throughout the republic without it having already appeared in the print media. Within a very short time there were mass protests and pro-democracy riots, which brought the mailing list increased media attention and popularity.
Due to the actions around the headquarters of the PDI-P , the list received increased media attention. In a relatively short time, more and more people signed up for the mailing list, until it finally collapsed due to the high volume of email traffic. Apakabar moved to the “Indopubs” homepage hosted in Stuttgart.
Individual evidence
- ^ Lim 2005: Archipelago Online. The Internet and Political Acitivsm in Indonesia. Dissertation, Trente University. (PDF; 2.7 MB) (July 2, 2008), p.96
- ^ Lim 2005: Archipelago Online. The Internet and Political Acitivsm in Indonesia. Dissertation, Trente University. (PDF; 2.7 MB) (July 2, 2008), p. 102.
- ^ Hill / Sen 1997: Wiring the Warung to Global Gateways. The Internet in Indonesia. In: Indonesia No 63, Cornell University Press. Pp. 67-89, p. 76
- ^ Hill / Sen 2000: Media, Culture and Politics in Indonesia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 200
- ^ Hill / Sen 2000: Media, Culture and Politics in Indonesia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 201
- ↑ van Klinken 1997: Indonesia on the Net - Inside Indonesia - a quarterly magazine on Indonesia and its people, culture, politics, economy and environment ( Memento from July 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (September 30, 2008)