Must we pay attention to Wikileaks ?

On Friday morning Australian newspapers Sydney Morning Herald and The Age wrote on their front page  about power abuse by Indonesian President SBY and corruption-bribery practiced by several top officials including former Vice President Jusuf Kalla and current Chairman of the People's Consultative Council (MPR) Taufik Kiemas.

According to The Jakarta Post, both newspapers mentioned that their source of information were diplomatic cables of the US Embassy in Jakarta that have been leaked by the controversial website Wikileaks.

The government was very angry at the above news, and Foreign Minister Mary Natalegawa has conveyed a strong protest to the US government via its Ambassador to Jakarta Scott Marciel

In a press statement published on the Embassy's website last Friday, the US government condemns the said disclosure of diplomatic cable on SBY.

Further, The Age has issued SBY's denial on the corruption claim.

In my opinion, the government's said reaction was exaggerating, in the sense that they are protesting news which were published based on unclear source of information i.e the Wikileaks.

Because Wikileaks was operated by people who have no connection with the US government and their embassies around the world. So if Wikileaks claimed that they have access to diplomatic issued by US Embassies, the only way they can do that is by stealing them either from the embassy concerned or from the receiver of those cables at the State Department in Washington DC, USA.   

Moreover, the US government has never confirmed the validity of the materials issued by Wikileaks.
In an interview with TV-One, Foreign Minister Marty Natelegawa quoted the US Ambassador in Jakarta as saying that the material were only hearsay, gossip by some people at their Embassy.

Indoleaks the Indonesian WikiLeaks

On 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks started to publish 251,287 leaked classified cables transmitted by U.S embassies in many countries, and last Tuesday its founder Julian Assange was arrested in London.

I was hoping that there would be a surprise from the 3,059 cables sent by U.S Embassy in Jakarta when  the news about IndoLeaks emerged.

According to Chanel 6 News Online, in just two days after launching of the website www.indoleaks.org on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2010, more than 100,000 documents have been downloaded by its users.

The website published, among others, the following documents :
-  Visum on victims on victims of the Indonesian Communist Party
-  Audit on Lapindo Mud Flow by the State Audit Agency
-  US Embassy report about Timor
-  Fact finding report about Munir

Unlike WikiLeaks which mentioned the name of its founder, Indoleaks does not mention any names of person/company who founded and managed the website, therefore it is difficult to give comment about it.

 Photo : Courtesy of Indoleaks.

WikiLeaks and Julian Assange

One of today's hottest topics is the WikiLeaks, an international non profit organization that published 251,287 cables of the U.S Embassy, including 3,059 from Jakarta, to the international public since 28 November 2010

The cables revealed classified information like U.S military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in Bagdad, Iraq, including two Reuters news staffs. For that, the US government and its allies wanted to arrest WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange.  

Last Tuesday, the British Police arrested Assange in London for allegations of raping two Swedish women as charged by the Interpol based on the request of the Police in Sweden.

However, until this present moment the U.S or its allies has still not been able to charge him or WikiLeaks for leaking the cables.

Cables transmitted by an embassy of a foreign country is a classified material, therefore said country would do its very best to safeguard it. If there is any leak, it should either be done by someone inside the embassy or someone who received it at the foreign affairs ministry of said country.

Although there is a possibility that WikiLeaks intercepted the said cable transmission, but I think this is almost impossible.

In my opinion leaking such classified material to unauthorized parties like WikiLeaks is an act of Crime, and publishing such material as done by WikiLeaks should be an accessory to Crime.

Considering the above, I wonder why the U.S and its alllies only focussed on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, and not on those inside the U.S Embassies and/or State Department in Washington.

Sources :
-  Wikileaks (Swiss) Website
-  WikiLeaks (Wikipedia)
-  Menlu dan Menkominfo Kumpulkan Data WikiLeaks .. (Detik)
-  WikiLeaks Indonesia (Newoes)
-  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested (The Jakarta Post)
-  Assange charges center on two women, sex (MSNBC) 

Image : Courtesy of WikiLeaks