From War-net to Net-war: The Internet and Resistance Identities in Indonesia

For decades following independence, informational media in Indonesia developed parallel with the interests of the state that made use of the media as a means to legitimize and maintain its identity as a progressive ‘‘developmental state’’. The Internet, which came to Indonesia during the early phase of the political crisis in the 1990s, economically and politically has risen to become an alternative media that is no longer under state control, thus bolstering civil society in its resistance to state and corporate domination. Based on Indonesia's experience, this paper describes how the Internet provides means for popular resistance to the dominant paradigm.