Laptops will be provided for the DPR. The cost of each laptop is 21,000,000 rupiah. I read the former Miss Indonesia Angelina Sondakh agree with this.
It is important to have the representatives up to date with technology.
more or less, she said. PDI-P, on the contrary, told their members to not accept the laptop. By refusing, they can save the country 2.3 billion rupiah. Some other parties also object to this laptop idea.
Let’s think about it. Theoretically, if the representatives have laptops, they can work more efficiently. The consequences of having a free laptop, like other people, is that they are expected to work more. To write and send reports in a timely manner. Less time wasted.
The access to the internet will permit them to do comparative studies from all around the country so there will be some travelling budget cost saved. Unfortunately, most of the sites on the web are in English. What is their English like? As an extension of Angelina Sondakh’s comment, having laptop may also make their English skill better.
Having a laptop means more work. And more chance to have teleconferences. I don’t know how effective it will be, but there will be a cut on the budget for ‘uang rapat’ (meeting money). Hook them up with skype and they are all set for meeting. Cut the budget for coffee and cookies. I don’t know how effective it would be, but there is an option.
Having a laptop means that they have to be computer literate. Again, extending Ms. Sondakh’s comment, it will educate the representatives. More budget for training (and the older you get, the slower your brain is).
Having a free laptop means that you have access to the internet, including porn sites and non work related sites. The laptop should be ‘audited’ to know who is abusing the use of laptop. Of course, you can delete the history, but it means more manpower for the laptop auditor. As we already know, some DPR members are non professional pornstars already (see Yahya Zaini Sex Scandal) so the abuse of laptop will not be something new.
Having a laptop means more IT work. It opens up work of the IT people, which will be paid by tax payers. Imagine 500 laptops to be taken care of, serviced if they get corrupted, caught virus, etc. More maintenance. And of course you want to install the original antivirus, original software, instead of those pirated ones. More money for software.
What will they use the laptop mostly for? Word processing. Excel. Powerpoint. Checking emails (that will be another thing: they should be set up with their own DPR email address). Maybe some advanced program to calculate economics, balances, etc.
On the other hand, where did the amount of 21 million rupiah for a laptop come from? I read in newspapers that a decent laptop can be bought “only” for 15 million. And, “it is owned by the country, so the next person in DPR can use it”. As you all know, technology moves fast, and what will happen is that in the next 4 years there will be a new product and the present free laptops will be out of date.
The argument, “It has been budgeted so might as well use it” is lame. How will the country benefit from the representatives having laptops? If there will be no more travelling allowance, meeting allowance, coffee and cookies expenditure for every meeting, and the cost for that is equal to what the expenditure for the laptop cost, that should be no problem. If problems will be solved faster by them having laptops, as a tax payer, I won’t complain.
But if it is meant for their education in technology and a tool to improve their English, I am not responsible for that. Why not elect somebody smarter in the DPR at the first place?
Thinking negatively, who will benefit from this huge mass supply for laptop? There must be a sneaky lucky guy(s) in DPR that get(s) percentage for entering all this laptop to the DPR.
Why not use PDA instead? It is cheaper, you can get a sophisticated one for 8 million rupiah. Dopod, HP, O2, name it. It is handy, you can still browse with it, there is Windows Mobile attached to it, so even if it is a bit small, it may still serve the purpose.
Now, what is the real purpose of them having free laptops in the first place? I haven’t seen any argument, a real urgent need for laptops, voiced from the House of Representatives that justifies that laptops are crucial for their work. And do all of them need a laptop? In my company, only those required to work like dogs are provided with laptops and PDAs. For snobs, having a laptop and PDA means 24 hours of work, no life, not luxury. I sometimes want to throw away my PDA. It means work on the long flights, hotel rooms, home.
So, as Tukul Arwana says, “Kembali ke Laptop”, what was the purpose of them having laptops again?
