Spreading the Word, Broadening Perspectives : Internet, NGOs and Globalisation Discourse in Indonesia

Globalisation is ambivalent. On the one hand, it brings prosperity, comfort and convenience in the form of economic growth, technological advancement, more open and democratic governance, and so forth. On the other hand, there are vast amounts of casualties from its progress, which only benefits some groups or countries. Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in Indonesia have established themselves in pivotal positions in the social, economic and political landscape across the country, and their growth has often been linked with globalisation. But there has been little study to understand how NGOs in Indonesia engage with the issue of globalisation itself. Globalisation has actually just started to become widely discussed among civil society activists in the late 1990s. An empirical study was conducted recently to see how some Indonesian NGOs, in their endeavour to respond to globalisation issues and phenomena, and broadening the discourse on globalisation, utilise Internet technology. The study draws on several case studies to build a detailed story about how different organisations with different concerns deploy strategies to deal with the issue. In addition, the study also tried to portray the big picture of the dynamics of Indonesian NGOs in engaging with Internet technology through an exploratory survey involving some 268 organisations. It was confirmed that although currently there are a number of Indonesian NGOs embracing particular issues and concerns in globalisation, this trend is quite recent. Despite the fact that the globalisation issue is relatively difficult to comprehend at large, Indonesian NGOs seem to be able to incorporate the issues and put it into a wider, more contextual and possibly more relevant perspective. It is argued however, that this situation cannot be just taken for granted for it is in fact another consequence of the organisations adopting information technologies