Subsidized Petrol Consumption Limited in 2013?

According to Kompas daily, the Indonesian Oil and Gas Downstream Regulator Body (BPH Migas) says they will limit subsidized petrol consumption for private cars up to Rp. 100,000 a day starting 2013. Most likely they will use - in my opinion - a smart-card-like technology to control the car's daily consumption. If this is the case, it will be a big challenge for them since they should install reader machines in all petrol station in order to avoid possibility that somebody fills petrol in multiple tank stations. Given bad internet infrastructure in Indonesia, it is most unlikely that they will be able to use cable broadband to connect the stations with central server. If they want to use satellite connection it will be very expensive in operation costs.
I think the brilliant idea of the late Vice Minister for Energy Prof. Widjajono Partowidagdo should be endorsed again in form of an energy diversity program. It should consist gasoline conversion to gas program, incentives for gas converters, and also higher price of subsidized petrol in order to make gas competitive in price compared with gasoline. I don't agree if the government raise the price of the subsidized petrol without any plan of energy diversity program, because the national budget is not only numbers but an instrument of policy.

Allegedly Lawmaker's Sex Video Politically Motivated?

It seems that some of Indonesian lawmakers never learn one thing: beware of what you record in your gadget. After legislator Yahya Zaini (Golkar), Max Moein (PDIP), and Arifinto (PKS), now young beautiful lawmaker Karolin Margret Natasa (PDIP) is said to be recorded in a hot video released at a website since last week.
Yahya Zaini was recorded together with a dangdut singer Eva Maria in 2006 and it costs his seat in parliament. Max Moein naked pictures with his secretary were circulating in internet and lead to his dismissal from the House of Representatives in 2008. Arifinto was caught watching pornographic video in a plenary session of the House by a photo journalist and although he denied that he intended to watch the video and argued that he only opened email attachment, he resigned from the parliament.
Now some have talk about politically motivated video circulation of Karolin playing sex with an activist - some people said he was Elya Muskitta. Her father is West Kalimantan Governor and in this year he will run for the second term. Some others talk about business motives since Karolin and Elya run business together. The case is still under investigation.
But such cases show a new development that technology can be used as a weapon in politics. It can ease our life, but like two sharp edges of the sword: it can also mean danger for your job!

State-Owned INTI to manufacture cheap tablet?

Yes, according to Indonesian site inilah.com, PT. INTI will manufacture cheap 2G-wifi tablet. President Director Irfan Setiaputra told reporters that the (Indonesian) market demand is not on cheap ordinary mobile phones but rather on smartphones and tablets. It is reported that the chip will be powered by Marvell chip, a well-known prominent fabless design company although on the other hand he signalized also that INTI will work together with IMO, a Chinese manufacturer just as they did together in assembling 50,000 cheap mobile phones per month. I am not sure if IMO uses Marvell chip for this product.
INTI was founded in 1974 as State-Owned Telecommunication Product Manufacturer in city of Bandung, capital of West Java province, 140 km distance from capital Jakarta. In 2006 the company got net profit Rp. 8 billion, in 2007 it fell to one billion rupiah, and in 2008 it reported loss of some 40 billion rupiah. Irfan Setiaputra was "invited" by the then Minister for SOE Sofyan Djalil as part of professionals invited to turn around some ailing SOEs. He was Cisco Indonesia country manager. Soon after taking President Director position he and his team decided to concentrate on raising profits. In 2009 INTI again moved to profit by making two billion rupiah profit, followed by Rp. 4 billion rupiah profit in the next year, and in 2011 the profit skyrocketing to Rp. 10 billion.
Besides manufacturing, INTI is now system-solution based industry, focusing in telecomunnication and IT integration. Some of the projects are INTI Smart Exchange 3000, NMS (Network Management System), SLIMS (Subscriber Line Maintenance System), NGN server, VMS (Video Messaging System), GPA (SNMP-based), Interface Monitoring System for CDMA Network, Disaster Forecasting and Warning System, I-Perisalah, Kwh meter, and ISRA (Indonesia Surveilance Radar).