Ivany Atina Arbi, Jakarta – Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Tjahjo Kumolo has sparked public outrage after sharing links of Indonesian movies, which were illegally uploaded to YouTube by irresponsible parties, on social media.
Among the movies are Cut Nyak Dien, Sang Kiai (The Cleric) and Kartini, which tell stories about the country's heroes and heroines.
Tjahjo, who shared the links through his Twitter account, @tjahjo_kumolo, on Sunday, has apologized and deleted the tweet after receiving protests, particularly from the country's renowned filmmaker Joko Anwar.
"Dear film director Joko Anwar, I got the links from WhatsApp [messages] and was moved to share them on Twitter as we're in the middle of celebrating Indonesia's Independence Day. For that I apologize," the minister tweeted on Monday.
Previously, Joko on his account, @jokoanwar, tweeted his disappointment over the minister's slip on sharing the links. The film director said many of the movies were uploaded to YouTube without the consent of the copyright owners.
"There's no point in celebrating the country's 75th anniversary if we still violate the rights of others, for whatever reason," he said, adding that it was impossible to educate the public about "intellectual property rights" to fight rampant piracy if the government had no awareness about it.
Joko's tweet has received more than 2,000 likes so far and has been retweeted by at least 1,200 users.
A twitter user, @visitingkaiju, said he was waiting for the government's next move to better protect intellectual property rights as many people were still violating them.
"Stop [piracy]! Every piece of work is supposed to give benefits to its creator in accordance with the value it provides to consumers," he said.