(ring) H… hello? Is this dotstoredotcom?

Yes.

I wanted to buy bandannas on your website but the system kept failing.

What’s App message me, then. I’ll get back to you tonight.

Tonight? You’re available now. (tentatively) Actually, umm… I’m working. In an office.

But this cellphone number is listed on your website as Customer Helpline.

(whispering now) Y-… yes. Just message me your order. Promise I’ll respond tonight.

That was a conversation I had with a decent-sized online shop recently. To be fair, I did get a reply that night and, after transferring money to the personal bank account of the guy I spoke to, the bandannas arrived in the mail. When I regaled my friends who’ve done much online shopping in Indonesia with the tale, most said that’s often the reality — despite the fancy website or social media presence, many online shops here are one-(wo)man shows with the owner clocking time as someone else’s employee somewhere else.

The major points for an entrepreneurial spirit aside, it got me thinking: With all the high talk about the digital economy around, is the real face of Indonesia’s e-commerce rudimentary at best? As far back as 1999 I was already a loyal online customer of Amazon, Victoria’s Secret and Nordstorm. Barely sleeping as a graduate student in the US then, online shops became handy. My initial worry about using credit cards online soon dissipated after witnessing the stores’ professionalism in processing orders, tracking deliveries and handling complaints. After I started working, I even ventured out to buy vintage fashion items online. Minimum fuss, maximum result.

Fast forward 17 years: I don’t feel secure about any online transaction in Indonesia, including via credit cards. Plus, there are too many hassles — the need to transfer to personal bank accounts, sellers not taking responsibility for order arrivals and domestic courier services rarely having online tracking systems. Lack of infrastructure, mediocre services. Result? Low trust. It’s worse that it feels pointless to hope that our dear government will soon provide the private sector with adequate technology infrastructure and policies to ensure security, without curtailing business, since the government itself seems unprepared in setting and maintaining their own technology-based public services.

Take the auto-gates the Immigration Office unveiled at the Soekarno- Hatta International Airport in the last year of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s presidency. That muchlauded initiative was swiftly embraced by many frequent travelers. Yet in recent months, the auto-gates were often not working in full, or at all, as I experienced last week. Just because we changed minister and President, does that mean progress would be pushed back because it wasn’t this administration’s “baby”? How partisan. Taxpayers are entitled to continuous availability and advancement of public services, regardless of who’s in charge.

Speaking about taxes, let’s look at this administration’s own baby, the e-filing. While it undoubtedly Digital this, auto that… reality, what? will reduce the snaking lines at tax offices nationwide in March, the system cannot cater to people like me whose small income trickles in from many sources of different kinds: consulting offices, media, SME ventures — just to name a few. My tax reports typically have more than 20 attachments, which the efiling system can’t seem to handle.

So, I still went one morning to my assigned tax office to file hard copies. As I was waiting for my queue number 400+, the queue app Antrila was brought to my attention. My rejoicing was short-lived as the app was only available in Android. What the Indonesian tax office has against us iOS users, I have no idea. Guess who finally came to my rescue? The private sector — in the form of a virtual assistant service called YessBossNow. As if understanding that a reliable internet connection isn’t a given, the service works on the low-tech SMS (short message service) format that many urbanites have deserted for netbased chat apps. Yes, I had to pay for the SMS to instruct my virtual assistant Clara to download the app and get a new queue number, but it was worth it, as in 10 minutes flat she managed to retrieve queue number 14 for a special desk and text it to me.

A very smart man who had served in our Cabinet, during which time I worked for him, once said to his deputies, “The government can hardly keep up with tech innovations, so we shouldn’t worsen it by issuing policies that discourage them.” That’s humbleness and the very heart of reform, don’t you think? If you recall the 2014 campaign trail, weren’t reforms the forefront promise? Yet, 18 months on I’m only seeing one disconnect and discontinue after another on our government side — one too many for the private sector to retain any hope any more. Don’t get me started on the government’s bewilderment in dealing with the app-based sharing economy like Uber or its obtuse decisions to block Tumblr and keep blocking Vimeo, used by many creative heads to promote their works, even as Mr. President went to tout digital economy plans in Silicon Valley.

For the digital-based private sector and customers-taxpayers, help is far from coming. That’s depressing, as starting this month common Singaporeans can simply relay from cellphones to pay for mass transportation fares. Think I should text Clara to get me the sugary banana syrup from Gowa, South Sulawesi. Somehow I have more faith in her procuring that obscure mood-buster than, say, us getting nationwide 4G by 2019. I gotta lie down, peeps.

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Lynda Ibrahim is a Jakarta-based writer with a penchant for purple, pussycats and pop culture.

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