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any say prostitution is the world'€™s oldest profession. But I have sometimes wondered half-seriously, which just shows how much free time I'€™ve got on my hands, that the world'€™s oldest profession couldn'€™t have been in services, but must have been in goods. Commerce was born when modern humans started to barter their crops or catches, after which I bet the need for a middleman must soon have emerged to balance the growing permutations of bartering in the marketplace. This might very well have happened before anyone felt the need for the services offered by street walkers.

As millennia have come and gone, the marketplace and its middlemen have evolved side by side. In recent years the marketplace has moved into the virtual realm of e-commerce, where physical interaction between buyers and sellers, or merchandise for that matter, no longer matters. Payments can be made electronically in different currencies, and the merchandises delivered to places far beyond the border of seller'€™s postal code. The bulk of global e-commerce trade comes from the giants like e-Bay, Amazon and Alibaba that pool various sellers into a single platform. Much more than just making connections, these companies are enabling technology to direct the new way of commerce. Middleman 2.0 is no longer a trading company, they'€™re a technology company.

Gotta love technology, eh? The democratization of options for customers, the opening of fresh market channels for producers. And as Indonesia'€™s current demographics show a rising middle class and population under the age of thirty, e-commerce is suddenly the darling du jour. At least that was the general sentiment at a 2-day seminar organized by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Foreign Ministry earlier this week. Citing different sources the panelists presented various statistics of the current market and its future potential. William Tanuwidjaya of Tokopedia.com was probably most correct when he said nobody knows the actual correct numbers, but everyone seemed to agree that this is where the commerce world was heading. The only question remaining is whether you, I, and the rest of Indonesia will ride technology'€™s leap-frogging momentum.

And this is where my heart sank a little. To grow healthily an industry needs the building blocks of infrastructure and growth-friendly policies, among other things. And to create infrastructure or implement growth-friendly policies for technology-based industries in particular, countries need to step out of their comfort zones and overcome the fear of the unfamiliar '€” something I very rarely see from the executive and legislative powers that be.

I tend to greatly agree with Dr. Raoul Oberman from Endeavor'€™s statement that there was a lot of fear in the air. The administration has always proclaimed that the nation is open to investment and innovation, but beyond the ceremonial welcome mat there have been a lot of protectionist policies and minimal support. Instead of wasting time being terrified that fast internet will corrupt the morality of young people or make the country vulnerable to neo-imperialistic foreign companies, the Indonesia government should spend more time thinking about how the internet can improve the livelihood of every citizen, including those living in the far-flung corners of the world'€™s largest archipelago.

Citizens won'€™t know how to compete with the rest of the world if they'€™re not even enabled, or allowed, to interact with the rest of the world. How are they going to develop survival skills, let alone superior skills, when they'€™re mollycoddled 24/7 by the government with the populistic jargon of nationalism? How are the youth going to match or beat foreigners for international-level jobs, to campaign for Indonesia'€™s vast interests on the global stage, when they'€™re trained to see foreigners as possible thieves instead of potential partners and markets?

It'€™s true that the Internet can introduce pornography, but it also can be used for e-learning in remote islands of Indonesia '€” much faster and up to date than encyclopedia books being snail-mailed as my friends and I are currently organizing for the islands of Maratua in East Kalimantan and Lembata in East Nusa Tenggara.

E-commerce is rampant with fraud and prone to tax evasion? Sure, but it also provides platforms for our SMEs to export their products and services far beyond our borders. East Nusa Tenggara women hand-weave some of the most gorgeous textiles Indonesia has seen, on par with what you find in Oaxaca, but how will the world discover them if beyond provincial capital of Kupang nobody gets 3G?

Make it easy for digital-based businesses to get off the ground by implementing policies that ensure fair competition. Then, tax the business fairly once the multiplier effect has come into play. That'€™s what the Indonesian government needs to do first, before moving forward to revolutionize our financial markets to lure in investment for this sector.

I realize I must sounded like a broken record, using my column again to bemoan the humiliating state of this nation'€™s infrastructure. But I genuinely fear that if we keep lagging behind in the digital realm, we'€™ll truly be a generation or two behind other parts of the world. This is something that can'€™t be easily fixed, even if eventually all the roads are built, bridges raised, hospitals equipped and children schooled.

So, Indonesian government, when will you finally be ready to shake off your fears? To fearlessly fly into the virtual realm with the rest of the world? Your citizens anxiously await.