The hall on the second floor of the Creative Media State Polytechnic (Polimedia) had been transformed into an impromptu workspace. Hundreds of computers lined the walls of the 20x40-meter room in Srengseng Sawah, South Jakarta. No one said a word. Everyone's eyes were fixed on their screens.

"When the minister himself appeared, we didn't even notice," Polimedia director Bambang Wasito Adi told Tempo in June. "Everyone was too busy with their compu-ters