Indonesia: Popular Minister Starts His Twitter Account · Global Voices
Agung Harsya

Dahlan Iskan, State Enterprises Minister, has caused another hype in the virtual world, especially among Indonesian Twitter users.
Last March 19, Dahlan caused a commotion at a tollgate in Jakarta after becoming upset by the long queue blocking his way. Dahlan had earlier instructed that there should be only five cars queuing at each ticket counter. That morning, he became upset finding many cars queuing and only two out of the four booths were open. Dahlan got out from his car and then lifted the barrier blocking the way to allow the vehicles, at least 100 cars, to pass without paying.
His action might be considered as excessive, but Jakarta's heavy traffic in the weekdays still remains a main issue in the capital so good traffic management is needed. His action generated a lot of buzz especially on social media.
Last week, he repeated the same trick but he targeted the wrong toll booth because the operator is a private corporation. He has apologized for that, but he still has public sympathy. Before the toll incident, Dahlan grabbed attention when he attended a minister meeting in Bogor (approximately 60km from Jakarta) by riding a train and ojek (a hired-motorbike) last December. He even spent a night in a farmer's house in Central Java last month, after helping out the farmer to gather eggs.
A few days ago, Dahlan launched his own twitter account, @iskan_dahlan. Six hours after posting two tweets, Dahlan is already being followed by almost 18,000 netizens.
And here are some reactions on Twitter
@TE8270: @iskan_dahlan selamat pa atas resminya akun twitternya, berarti sdh ada tempat kami rakyat utk langsung mengadu tentang pelayanan BUMN.
@aforasri: Selamat datang di Twitter,pak @iskan_dahlan! :) Sudah banyak warga Twitterland yg menunggu kehadiran Bapak. *bahagia*
@NajwaShihab: Pak @iskan_dahlan lagi buka akun twitter di @MataNajwa :D lockerz.com/s/200631892
@jetsilvers: ayo pak Dahlan kuatkan stamina, lawan terus , gunakan media > people untuk lawan @iskan_dahlan #janganmenyerah aturan ga bagus ganti sj
@mamanyamilo: Pak @iskan_dahlan sekali2 naek commuter saat jam sibuk dong pak,biar ngerasain gmn padat n panasnya krn ac sering mati plus gangguan sinyal
After a week on Twitter, Dahlan is still quite coy in using his new account. He has posted only 25 tweets but he already has more than 50,000 followers. It is understandable due to his full-day activities as a minister, but he found time to reply to a news item about the House of Representative (DPR) intention to use their interpellation rights to ask his policy.
@iskan_dahlan [replying to his follower's mention]: @rizalcalvary: Nih Dia ‘Dosa-Dosa’ Dahlan Iskan Versi DPR: http://suarapengusaha.com/2012/04/13/nih-dia-dosa-dosa-dahlan-iskan-versi-dpr/” Tambah satu lagi: interpelasi!
Some netizens gave their support to Dahlan regarding the interpellation issue:
@DyanMeti: @iskan_dahlan saya salut sama Bapak yg membuat gelisah para oportunis d DPR yg kayak taman kanak-kanak ..hehehe
@Sugito_btm: @DahlanIskanNote @iskan_dahlan interpelasi ini justru akan semakin menaikan pamor pak dahlan…lanjutkan dah interpelasinyahahahha