Makassar – The National Coordinator of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia, Aryanto Nugroho, became a resource person in the Hearing held by the National Law Development Agency (BPHN) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) in a hybrid meeting on March 9, 2023, to obtain broader input from the public and stakeholders related to mapping regulation needs in preparation for the preparation of the 2025-2029 Mid-Term National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

This activity had a background based on the results of BPHN’s monitoring of regulatory planning in 2022, where the achievement of the target completion of the Draft Law (RUU), Draft Government Regulation (RPP) and Draft Presidential Regulation (RPerpres) in 2022 still did not reach 50% (fifty per cent). On the other hand, the 2020-2024 Medium-Term National Legislation will enter its final stage in 2024. In other words, 2024 will be the last time to finalize the list of bills included in the 2020-2024 Mid-Term Prolegnas list. In regards to this, BPHN has held coordination meetings with Ministries/Institutions in order to evaluate the achievements of Prolegnas in 2020, 2021 and 2022 as well as follow up on the completion of the bill in the 2020-2024 Mid-Term Prolegnas. In the same year, the Government must also prepare a draft proposal for the next period of Medium-Term Prolegnas.

Therefore, BPHN considers the necessity to hold hearings with the public and stakeholders in preparing for the Medium-Term Prolegnas 2025-2029 within the Government. BPHN also expects other suggestions on the legal needs of the community, both in the context of the ‘residual’ list of the 2020-2024 Mid-Term Prolegnas, as well as other things outside the context of the Prolegnas list, which need to be considered. This input will be the starting material for BPHN in mapping the planning of the 2025-2029 Medium-Term Prolegnas.

On this occasion, Aryanto conveyed notes related to aspects of transparency and participation in the preparation of regulations, including transparency should not be interpreted as limited to uploading documents on websites or other information channels, but it must be interpreted that information can actually be accessed by the public (especially affected communities). It is difficult for the public to obtain national legislation documents at every stage, such as Academic Papers, Issue Inventory Lists (DIM), Discussion Schedules, Discussion Notes, Updated Documents etc., and the Government’s Legislation Channel has not been synchronized with the DPR. In addition, participation in the drafting of the bill has so far been limited to Public Hearings (RDPU) in parliament (Jakarta), or hearings in big cities and very rarely involves the community at the site level or the local community. Also, there is no public participation channel that is easily accessible to the wider community to provide input on the draft bill, draft RPP or draft Perpres.

Aryanto also proposed a number of suggestions, including the need for a channel (can be in BPHN or modify existing platforms) to publish bill documents at each stage (NA, Draft Bill, Discussion Results, etc.); there needs to be a channel for the wider community to provide input on bill proposals or input on draft NA or Draft Bill or Draft Bill being discussed. The channel that is built must be easily accessible and inclusive (allowing disabled groups to access it). And the hearing or socialization model involves affected community groups, including vulnerable groups and communities in remote areas.

Not to mention, Aryanto provided input to the substance on the need to consider the relationship between one bill and another (avoiding sectoral ego); Prolegnas is not a wish list but based on prioritized needs; and the need to consider gender analysis framework (inclusion) in every NA or Draft Bill.

Author: Aryanto Nugroho