Despite some unresolved problems plaguing the tender process of the national electronic citizen identity card (E-ID) program, the Home Ministry insists that the show must go on.

The project, which was launched in February and targeted to be completed at the end of 2012, has been marred with technical glitches and corruption allegations. In a nutshell, it is a controversial and inefficient government project that lacked a solid grand design.

From the very substantial background of the program, Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi has claimed that the project is mandated by the Law on Population Administration. The government, as stipulated in Article 101, is obliged to develop a database of citizenship identity numbers (NIK) in five years.

However, the ministry has misinterpreted the legislation and jumped to a conclusion, which looks to be a jump too far, by initiating the ...