Social History of the Internet and its Uses in Indonesia with Merlyna Lim

by Lenore Lyons

Merlyna Lim is Assistant Professor at Arizona State University School of Justice and Social Inquiry in joint appointment with Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. Her current teaching and research interests revolve around the socio-political shaping of new media and ICT, in relation to issues of globalization, identity politics and democratization. Prior to her appointment at Arizona State University in 2006, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California from September 2005 – August 2006. She received her PhD, with distinction, from the University of Twente in the Netherlands in September 2005. She has held the following awards: Henry Luce Southeast Asia Fellowship (2004), Wotro Fellowship (2003-2005), Social Science Research Council ITIC Grant (2003-2004), Oxford Summer Doctoral Fellowship (2003) and ASIST International Paper Contest Winner (2002). Her recent publications include a monograph entitled Islamic Fundamentalism and Anti-Americanism in Indonesia: Role of the Internet (Honolulu: East West Center, Hawai’i). For a complete list of publications, see http://www.merlyna.org/pubs.

Merlyna recently gave a public lecture as part of the Association of Internet Researchers conference, held in Brisbane, Australia, from September 27-30 2006. Her lecture, entitled Democracy, Conspiracy, and Pornography: Politics of the Internet in Indonesia, explored the social history of the development of the Internet and its uses in Indonesia. The lecture was sponsored by Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS) at the University of Wollongong (www.capstrans.edu.au).

LL: I’ve had the opportunity to listen to you present at several different venues during your stay in Australia so it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to follow-up with you on some of the issues you’ve raised. Let’s start though at the very beginning - how did you get interested in studying the Internet in Indonesia?

ML: There were four major occasions that led me to do what I am doing now. First, I had always been interested in computers. I used to hang out with some guys – male friends who were studying electrical engineering - they were experimenting with IT, assembling computers, using emails and other stuff. So, naturally I almost became one of those computer-nerds! In 1995 I had already started using email and was among those classified as the earliest Internet users in Indonesia. The second occasion was when I was studying architecture as my major. My thesis was originally not about cyberspace at all, but about architectural design. However during my studies I got very ill for nearly 3 months and I couldn’t get out of the house. So I decided to install a dial-up connection at home. My parents complained about the phone being used all the time but I was sooo fascinated! I used the Internet mostly not for communication but just browsing the Internet and found so many articles about virtual architecture, and this whole home-Internet contemplation and meditation resulted in a very theoretical thesis entitled “The emergence of cyberspace as a new paradigm in spatial conception of architecture.” It marked my shift of interests from physical dimensions to social/virtual dimensions of space. Third, I was a student in 1998 and was on the streets, involved in the demonstrations against the President Suharto. It was a whole new experience that connected my being an Internet user with political activism. Fourth, in 1999, I got an opportunity to be a research assistant for someone who was doing research on societal constructions of information and communication technology (ICT) where I found an interest in doing social science research and started to investigate political studies of the Internet. All of these personal experiences shaped my current research interests and paved a perfect natural path for me to become what I am now.

LL: Where did you study architecture?

ML: In Indonesia. I did my Bachelors Degree in Architectural Engineering at the Institute of Technology Bandung, and then a Masters of Theory and Philosophy of Architecture at the University of Parahyangan.

LL: At some point you decided to go on to your PhD?

ML: Yes, that was 2001.

LL: What made you decide to do that?

ML: Well, it was pretty much related to the Societal Construction of Technology project I was involved. As I mentioned previously, in 1999 I got a job as a research assistant for that project, to assist Professor Joshua Barker, an anthropologist from Cornell University, who worked for University of Twente’s project. After working with him for sometime, he encouraged me to apply for a PhD at the University of Twente and he said I could use the data from the project for my PhD research. I did apply and got a fellowship, too. I did my PhD in Science, Technology and Society Studies, STS. It was just by chance because I was involved in the ICT project I mentioned previously, which happened to be hosted by STS department at Twente.

LL: So, tell me more about your dissertation – “@rchipelago Online: the Internet and Political Activism in Indonesia”.

ML: My dissertation tries to provide insights into the dynamics of Internet-politics relations by looking at how the Internet was used in transition period, within two different political circumstances in Indonesia, which are the late period of Suharto and the post-Suharto period. Using Indonesia as a local site of the next struggles over choice, use and transformation of the Internet, in my dissertation I attempted to show how the Internet interplays with power struggles, and how the creation and assertion of identity become a focal point of contests over power. Exploring many contemporary ideas from existing theories and linking these ideas together, my dissertation gives a multi-layered, richly textured analysis that draws from key perspectives such as the idea of conviviality which argues against both a utopian view, that the Internet is a democratic tool, and a dystopian view that claims the Internet as an undemocratic tool. I also look at the concept of network society, theories on collective action and identity formation, meta-narratives ideology and hegemony, and materialist explanations of social discontent. In my dissertation I demonstrated that in studying Internet-society relations, one cannot stay only within the ethereal realm of cyberspace, not isolate the Internet as a secluded space that is separated from any activities in a real world setting. In facilitating political activism, the Internet is not detached from the non-cyberspace realm, but rather, corresponds with it. In addition, my dissertation also demonstrates that while the Internet does change the global-local dynamics of political activism, it also corresponds with the socio-political terrain of nation-states and other localities.