Futuregov.asia has a fascinating article proclaiming social networks as Indonesia’s “Fifth Estate”, a direct quote from the commissioner of the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (BRTI), Heru Sutardi.

Indonesia is arguably Asia’s biggest social networking, with a thriving industry. It is not only Asia’s Twitter capital and has by far and away the continent’s largest number of Facebook members.

With that in mind, Indonesia is one of the world’s most likely places where social media can play a key role in domestic matters.

Sutardi’s catching “fifth estate” soundbite is backed up examples which paint Indonesia as a social media utopia, with sites like Facebook and Twitter providing a voice and power for the people

At the end of last year, two leaders of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) were released from jail with the aid of a defence campaign led by a Facebook group (A Million Facebookers Support Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto) that has 1.4 million members.

In June 2009, a mother-of-two was jailed for defamation after an email complaint she made against a hospital appeared on Facebook. A Facebook group of 100,000 paid her legal bills and protested her innocence. She was later acquitted.

“Facebook in particular has become a common outlet for discussions on the state of democracy in Indonesia,” Sutadi told FutureGov. “Groups raising popular public policy issues have been growing in influence, drawing together the public and government in debate and into action.”

“It can now be said that social networks have become ‘the fifth estate’ in Indonesia, alongside the legislative, executive, judicative and the media,” he added.

So why are social networks so big in Indonesia? I had a stab at answering this earlier this year during an email interview with Reuters, my thoughts below.

With a population of 230 million plus, Indonesia is a huge potential market for social networking just in numbers alone. In Asia only China is larger and, given that Twitter is blocked for mainstream Chinese internet users, Indonesia has stepped into the void and become the Twitter capital of Asia. On a global scale, Indonesia was recently measured the world’s sixth most vocal nation on Twitter behind a number of established western nations.

There are a number of reasons for Twitter’s popularity, the number one factor is a low cost of entry to mobile internet. Available new for $500, BlackBerry is the country’s best selling and most affordable smartphone while, as a result of country’s mobile operators early introduction of technology, the Indonesia public has a vast array of affordable tariffs and services to support mobile internet browsing.

The fact that English – the main language of Twitter – is widely spoken is another key element while a growing fashion conscience in the country’s society propels the consumer demand for smartphones. 

The futuregov article adds further context and explanation:

According to a recent Indonesian Internet Society survey, most Indonesian internets users do so to access social networks such as Twitter, Facebook (Indonesia is Facebook’s fast-growing market) and MySpace to interact with friends, family and colleagues.

Social networks have grown alongside the rise of low-cost web-enabled mobile devices and the proliferation of brands (real and copied) such as BlackBerry and iPhone – Indonesia is Asia’s fastest growing mobile subscriber market.

According to a survey of 1500 internet users in seven Indonesian cities by Yahoo! in May of this year, 48 per cent of users access the web via mobile phones, compared with 26 per cent in 2009.

Almost all new cell phones in Indonesia, even those costing less than US$100, have internet capability.

Meanwhile, the country’s online population is growing at a rate of 49 per cent annually, up to 30 million in September 2009 – a 1000 per cent increase over in the last nine years.