Hundreds of thousands of people have signed on to follow President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's newly launched Twitter account, which he says will facilitate closer communication with everyday Indonesians.
Yudhoyono launched his personal Twitter account @SBYudhoyono at Cipanas Palace, West Java, on Saturday night.
"I joined the Twitter world so that every day I could greet, share and give inspirations and other important things that might be useful for our people who want the country to be better and more advanced," he said, as quoted by his official website PresidenRI.go.id.
Twitter users responded to the new account with welcoming messages, criticisms of policies and requests to chat privately. User @MissanDhilaw tweeted: "I proud you Mr. @SBYyudhoyono."
Another user, @mkusumawijaya, tweeted: "It should be the president @SBYudhoyono who follows us, not us following him. A leader must listen and ask his people, not the other way around."
User @SleepyPill tweeted: "Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the internet Mr. President @SBYudhoyono.1 important tip 'please do not be easily offended here.'"
During the launch on Saturday, Yudhoyono said that he was aware that the platform could be used as a means for people to directly criticize him.
"Just like SMS, there are good, neutral and excessive messages. But I'll let the Twitter world be the judge. What I will respond is the contents, this is a democratic country, so it will be okay," he said, as quoted by Metrotvnews.com.
Yudhoyono said that being in communication with the people of Indonesia was a priority for him. Since taking office in 2004, he said he generally communicated and interacted with people directly through visits to regions in the country.
He also opened PO BOX 9949 and text message 9949 channel for people who want to share reports, complaints or information. Yudhoyono said that since they were opened in 2005, the PO BOX and text message channel have received 115,000 letters and 3.5 million text messages.
Yudhoyono said biweekly reports show that 40 percent to 50 percent of messages are supportive of government policy, around 30 percent are neutral while the rest are negative.
He acknowledged that there is a need to have direct communication with the people beyond conventional channels like mail and telephone.
Yudhoyono said he would be tweeting from his account most of the time, but a special team will take over during busier periods. Tweets directly from him would be marked with *SBY*.
He denied a rumor that he had to pay $15,000 to get his Twitter account verified. "I wonder how come there are people who easily thought negatively. There is no such thing [paying to get verification]," he said.
Yudhoyono added that another reason he decided to join Twitter was because all but four G20 country leaders used the platform.
There are more than 483,000 followers of Yudhoyono's account, which posted seven messages as of Sunday afternoon.
Despite his many followers, Yudhoyono is following just nine other users: Vice President Boediono, his two sons Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono and Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, his daughters-in-law Anissa Pohan and Siti Ruby Aliya Rajasa, the official State Palace account and three journalists.