A cry for help from a man desperate for a date was one of two million text messages sent to Indonesia’s president since he set up the service last year.
“I need a job Mr. President! I also need a wife and I want to have a date! Please help me! You are the president, right?” said one of the messages sent to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The president has been available to the people of Indonesia through a public phone number and a post office box that were created as a way to stop corruption. The president wanted a way for the public to report abuses of power or other problems.
PHOTO: AP
The phone line soon crashed after it was flooded with thousands of text messages and calls. President Yudhoyono did not give up; instead he introduced a new number, 9949, which have the numbers of his birth date.
Of the two million text messages, just 300,000 were actually from people who were making complaints. Of the 18,000 letters, only one-third were serious, according to a book on the complaints that went on sale last week. The rest were calls for help. Some demanded cash to set up small businesses or build places of worship, while many asked for help finding a job.
One woman even asked the president for a mobile phone, saying that her husband would not lend his to her.
Yudhoyono, who took office in October 2004, has promised to improve Indonesia’s bureaucratic problems and get tough on corruption, which has created a lot of problems in the country.(AFP)
自去年開辦簡訊服務以來,傳送給印尼總統的簡訊已有兩百萬封,一名極度渴望約會男子的哀求只是其中之一。
傳送給總統尤多約諾的眾多簡訊中有一封這樣寫著:「總統先生,我需要一份工作!我還需要一個老婆,而且我想要約會!請幫幫我吧!您是總統,對吧?」
印尼民眾可透過專為肅貪而公開設立的電話號碼及郵政信箱與總統聯繫,而總統藉此給大眾一個投訴濫權或其他問題的管道。
成千上萬的簡訊及電話如潮湧至後,這條電話線立刻塞爆。總統尤多約諾並未因此放棄;他轉而公佈9949這組包含他個人生日的新電話號碼。
收到的兩百萬通簡訊中,只有三十萬通真正要投訴。而上週上市的一本關於這些訴願的書籍中指出,一萬八千封投書中,僅三分之一是危急重要的事,其餘都是要請求奧援。有部份民眾要求借貸現金以經營小生意或興建禮拜場所,但也有許多人是請求幫忙尋找工作。
一名女子甚至要求總統給她手機,因為她先生不願借她用。
二00四年十月就職的尤多約諾承諾要改善印尼官僚政治的問題,並嚴厲整肅已為印尼製造許多問題的貪腐情況。
(法新社/翻譯:林倩如)
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