Jakarta, 16 April 2026 – Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia, in collaboration with the Indonesia Judicial Research Society (IJRS) and with support from the European Union and the Open Government Partnership (EU-OGP), held an Expert Discussion titled “Reviewing the Urgency and Strategy for Strengthening the Institutional Legality of Open Government Indonesia (OGI)” on 16 April 2026. The hybrid event was hosted from the PWYP Indonesia office and featured two experts: Alamsyah Saragih and Giri Ahmad Taufik.
The discussion stemmed from the main challenge in implementing OGI in Indonesia: the absence of a strong legal foundation. Since 2023, civil society organizations (CSOs) under the OGP Indonesia platform, together with several ministries and institutions, have been advocating for a Presidential Regulation (Perpres) on Open Government Indonesia. However, the proposed Perpres has not yet received serious attention from the government.
As an alternative strategy, the Minister of National Development Planning (PPN)/Head of Bappenas issued Ministerial Decree (Kepmen) No. 55 of 2025 concerning the Establishment of the Strategic Coordination Team for the Implementation of the National Action Plan for Open Government Indonesia. This decree currently serves as the legal basis for coordinating the implementation of the OGI action plan.
As the discussion opener, Marselino from IJRS explained that advocacy to strengthen OGI’s legal status, from a Ministerial Decree to a Presidential Regulation, has been carried out by IJRS since 2023–2024. The primary route was the principal approval mechanism at the State Secretariat, supplemented by alternative channels such as the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) and the Government Work Plan (Progsun). With Bappenas, IJRS followed all required procedures and workflows, including drafting the Perpres and its attachments, developing a roadmap, defining targeted outcomes, and preparing an urgency narrative document.
The process had actually advanced to the clarification meeting stage. However, during the decisive meeting with relevant ministries and institutions, including the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemenlu), the two institutions were not aligned. As a result, the principal approval mechanism failed.
Meanwhile, Giri Ahmad Taufik identified several regulatory issues and legal dynamics related to existing transparency initiatives. According to him, there is overlap among similar initiatives, including Open Government Indonesia (OGI), Satu Data Indonesia (SDI), Beneficial Ownership (BO), Stranas-PK, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and the Public Information Disclosure Law (UU KIP). While UU KIP faces implementation challenges, particularly in legal enforcement, other initiatives, such as OGI and EITI, lack a strong legal basis, resulting in weak binding power.
Another critical issue is the increasingly crowded and fragmented landscape of these initiatives. This has led ministries and institutions to feel overburdened, as each initiative adds reporting and administrative requirements—a situation known as “compliance fatigue.” Consequently, there is a risk that bureaucrats become exhausted and treat administrative work as merely ceremonial.
Giri acknowledged that a Ministerial Decree provides an insufficient legal basis, whereas a Presidential Regulation would be stronger. However, he assessed that the current draft does not fully address comprehensive system harmonization. What is more important, he said, is to harmonize the various existing regulations and initiatives-for example, aligning KIP law with the OGI presidential regulation based on the current landscape. The current approach tends to emphasize individual rights. A better path would be to harmonize regulations and initiatives. Other options to consider include merging initiatives or establishing communication systems between them so that all can operate synergistically and harmoniously. The required strategy is to identify and prioritize quick wins.
“We should not only package OGI in isolation, but also create coupling mechanisms between one system and other initiative systems so that the wheels keep turning,” Giri emphasized.
In the discussion, Alamsyah Saragih presented an analysis and advocacy recommendations for civil society amid compliance fatigue. He suggested that civil society should pursue advocacy pathways that orchestrate strategic collaboration, or create more “aquariums”—spaces for collaboration that apply open government principles. Alamsyah noted that the existing co-creation practices between the government and CSOs have been running quite well and can be further expanded across various sectors.
“Rather than pushing for an umbrella regulation that risks getting stuck at the paradigm level and whose context may change, it is better to create more arenas for collaboration. Choose the areas, then promote successful collaborations based on more open government principles,” Alamsyah asserted.
He hopes that through continuously developing collaborative practices, the government’s perspective can shift. This approach is considered more strategic given the current political situation. OGI began in 2011, born of the global spirit of government openness during Barack Obama’s presidency. However, both the international and domestic situations today are vastly different.
Author: Wicitra D.
Editor: Meliana Lumbantoruan