As Indonesia's 2024 democratic elections draw nearer, various political parties are starting to unveil their programs, and the Ummat Party is no exception.
Ummat Party, or "Partai Ummat" in Indonesia, is a political party of Indonesia, founded by former Chairman of the National Mandate Party's Advisory Board, Amien Rais, an Islamic modernist-turned-Islamic conservative.
According to a tweet from his official account @realAminRais, he announced concrete steps in combating pornography. In his tweet, Amien affirmed that if the Ummat Party wins, they will eradicate pornography.
And to do that, he mentioned about turning off VPNs, with the hope that Indonesia without the tool, Indonesia shall be free from pornography. This tweet is accompanied by a poster featuring the Chairman of the Ummat Party, Ridho Rahmadi.
Many netizens had mixed reactions about this tweet, most of which are criticisms.
An analogy from one of the critics, is that eradicating porn by eliminating VPNs is the equivalent of eradicating murder by destroying all knives.
The question is, are knives only used for murder? Was the first knife maker intentionally creating knives for murderers from the beginning? Knives can be used for many good purposes, and no kitchen is complete without the presence of at least one knife.
"Using the same logic, would you agree on this kind of 'solution'?'" asked one X user.
VPNs, or virtual private networks, allow users to encrypt their internet traffic and route it through a server in another location. This can be used to bypass geo-restrictions on websites, such as those that block porn.
In Indonesia, many people use VPNs to bypass the restrictions imposed by Ministry of Communication and Informatics, and blocking VPNs can indeed block those people from accessing porn.
While blocking VPNs can be effective in preventing people from accessing porn, many suggest that it's not the perfect solution.
There are always new ways to bypass VPN blocks, and governments and other organizations may not be able to block all VPN traffic. Additionally, blocking VPNs can also have negative consequences, such as preventing people from accessing legitimate websites that are blocked in their country.
In other words, blocking VPNs can also prevent people from accessing certain websites, and curb free speech.
Many also pointed out that VPNs are not solely used for accessing porn, and that many businesses and companies, as well as organizations use VPNs to safely and securely connect to their servers.
Read: Explaining The Types Of VPN Services And The Protocols They Use.
Yang setuju, like and share! Partai Ummat jika nanti menang dan dikasih amanah untuk jadi decision maker, pornografi akan kita berantas!!! VPN kita matikan. Insha Allah Indonesia bebas pornografi! #amienrais #partaiummat #byebyepan pic.twitter.com/odCet21BsR
— Amien Rais Official (@realAmienRais) September 8, 2023
Partai Ummat argues that the internet has lots of negative content, ranging from pornography, LGBT issues, violence, to online gambling, and more.
The Chairman of Partai Ummat, Ridho Rahmadi, revealed that there are several ways to address the circulation of negative content, particularly pornography. And one of the methods, is to disable VPNs.
Ridho claimed that by disabling VPNs, the government would not need to allocate a significant budget to tackle pornography on the internet.
"Even if we turn off VPNs, perhaps 90 percent of the pornography issue can be resolved," he said.
Ridho, who is the son-in-law of Amien, admitted that Partai Ummat had already submitted this proposal to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, but the proposal had not been acted upon.
"Unfortunately, the response from the minister at that time was that VPN matters should be left to the individual beliefs of each netizen. Well, this answer is somewhat hard to digest," Ridho added.
He further explained that based on data from 2017, 90 percent of 11-year-old children in Indonesia were exposed to pornography content. Additionally, 25,000 instances of child pornography activities were circulating daily on social media.
"According to data from 2017, this means that the growth may be even more exponential now. Has there been control from the government and from us as a society? We are like naked individuals without protection, exposed to the scorching sun and rain," Ridho concluded.
And things got much worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, where VPN usage skyrocketed.
Politisi muda, ketum Partai Ummat, musisi, doktor di bidang Artificial Intelligence, seorang ayah dari 3 anak #lawankezaliman #tegakkankeadilan #partaiummat #ridhorahmadi pic.twitter.com/kdodc7arz4
— Amien Rais Official (@realAmienRais) June 5, 2023
Ridho Rahmadi, is a 1985-botn Indonesian politician, computer scientist and academic who is the current chairman of the Ummah Party, serving since the party's founding in 2021. He is the son-in-law of the party's founder Amien Rais.
He attended the Islamic University of Indonesia in 2007, before studying abroad at the Johannes Kepler University, Linz, graduating in 2012. He then continued his masters degree at the Czech Technical University. Later, he received his doctorate from Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 2019, having started his program in 2013.
During his doctoral studies, he was also a visiting researcher at Carnegie Mellon University for several months in 2017
His research focus was in artificial intelligence.
Married to Tasniem Fauzia Rais, daughter of Amien Rais, Ridho was a lecturer before named as the chairman of the Ummah Party upon its founding.
Soon after offered the post, Ridho helped setting up the party's technological backend, including the development of polling and survey apps for the party. He also called for national investment into information technology and AI.
