Tallinn, Estonia (8/9/2023) – The Indonesian Civil Society Coalition for Open Government Partnership (OGP) attended and participated in the eighth OGP Summit on September 6-7, 2023, in Tallinn, Estonia. Representatives of the Coalition who attended were Medialink, International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), Suarise, Publish What You Pay Indonesia, Indonesia Judicial Research Society (IJRS), Wahana Visi Indonesia, and Transparency International Indonesia (TI Indonesia). Indonesia was one of the eight OGP declarator countries in 2011.
The Civil Society Coalition appreciates that Indonesia has successfully passed the pandemic, although there are still shortcomings and information closures related to procuring goods and services in handling the pandemic. Many countries have experienced difficulties handling the pandemic, and the Indonesian government has adapted, but not with its public information. Even so, incidents such as leaks of citizen data in handling the pandemic and abdication of data protection responsibilities from the government continue to occur. Lack of transparency creates non-accountability.
OGP is expected to answer the problem of government openness and strengthening public services in Indonesia. However, this agenda has not been a priority for the government in the last two terms of government. The government’s priority is focused on developing hundreds of National Strategic Projects (PSN) throughout Indonesia, including constructing new capitals, airports, etc. The implementation of PSN is driven by the hasty formation and revision of regulations prioritizing investment and business over accountability and civic space, including the Job Creation Law, Health Law, KPK Law, Criminal Code Law, and Minerba Law, which ignore public participation in their formulation.
As a result, according to data from the Economist Intelligence Unit, from 2017 to 2022, Indonesia’s Democracy Index continued to decline or stagnate. Even in the civil liberties indicator, the Philippines (7.35) is more democratic than Indonesia (6.14). Various attacks on civil liberties and public space openness continue to occur digitally (hacking, doxing, hoaxes, wiretapping), physically (attacks, discussion dissolution, tear gas), and legal attacks in the form of criminalization of activists.
Although Indonesia received the OGP Award through co-creating the Legal Aid Fund program driven by the Civil Society Coalition of IJRS, PBHI, and the Association of LBH APIK Indonesia, participatory public policy discussions are still challenging. Of the 15 National Action Plan commitments, many implementation processes can only be carried out or implemented unilaterally with the co-creation process that is the breath of OGP. In the 2023-2024 RAN VII period, civil society continues to push for several central issues to support government openness, including natural resource extraction in the mineral mining sector, beneficial ownership disclosure, sustainable procurement of goods and services, and sustainable energy transition management disclosure.
To maintain the core values of OGP in implementing the joint agendas formulated in the National Action Plan, some strategic steps noted by the Civil Society Coalition for Open Government to be followed up together are as follows:
1. OGP implementation needs to be continued by the next government leadership without exception. All presidential candidates must commit to and include government openness in the vision and mission of future development.
2. The involvement of non-government actors needs to be formally institutionalized with a clear regulatory framework, accompanied by access to resources and an equal monitoring and evaluation role.
3. Openness of public policy discussions that need to be prioritized immediately, namely national strategic projects, infrastructure projects including new capitals, natural and mineral resource extraction programs, energy transition, and government social spending.
4. The state needs to encourage safe spaces for human rights and environmental activists and journalists regarding the decline in openness of public space and opinion in Indonesia.
Contact person:
Darwanto, CSO-OGP Indonesia Secretariat – kanjeng.darwanto@gmail.com
Christian, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) – kes@antikorupsi.org
Mistonizam, International NGO Forum for Indonesian Development (INFID) –
iwan_buana@yahoo.com