Wanted: Transparency

It was only three years ago since the Indonesian government received an appraisal of being the first on the list of countries with the highest Trust and Confidence in the National Government data released by Gallup World Poll. Within this last past year, significant changes appear and seem like on the contrary of the award received.

Indonesia gained a spot in the world’s eyes through the issue of the respective radical criminal code and corruption eradication commission bills. The issue of the first bill was highly criticized due to radical intervention in public’s private matters and the second one was an obvious sign of crippling down the anti-corruption agency amidst the country’s corruption perception index is ranked 85th of 180 countries and perceives score 40 of 100 (100 means very clean, source from Transparency International).

Regardless of the content of respective bills, the massive critics came due to unaccountability of issuing the bills. Both suddenly appeared before the second inauguration of President Joko “Jokowi” Dodo and were in a rush to be legislated. They lack public deliberation process which led to a massive demonstration from students and civil society.

Have not finished yet with the controversial two bills, the government launched the gigantic omnibus bill on job creation which streamlines 73 laws including land procurement, labor reform and investment relaxation. The same critic goes since the government does not widely involve the labor union representatives in issuing the bill.

This elitist decision-making process has become common and surely endanger the democratic system upheld by the country. While the government perceives two different poles between elites and people as followers, the ephor of democracy is supposed to be in the process of connecting between elites and people in the decision-making process instead of merely emphasize on the role of the state.

The non-transparency aspect seems to reach its peak in the government’s mitigation plan of coronavirus outbreak. Australia has put its distrust by issuing a travel ban to Indonesia. On the other hand, more worriedness actually come from Indonesian citizen itself.

The official twitter account of the Ministry of Health posted a questioning statement that the area lockdown is not necessarily needed since the carrier of the is the person irrespective the contaminated area. This triggers public demand for a further explanation since the mobility of the carrier in a certain area will likely affect the virus’s spread, thus, the spread mapping is urgently needed.

Amidst the snowball effects of the announcement of the outbreak situation, the public has their rights to know the real situation, so they can prepare a personal mitigation plan according to their needs. Instead of hiding the information, what should be addressed is the mitigation plan in anticipating the effects, such as preparing proper healthcare facilities and filling the supply side of basic needs and foods.

The Chinese Communist Party and government were rampantly blamed for their terrible fault in hiding the virus outbreak since the late of last year. This situation was expensively paid by the rise of death tolls of the virus in China, the lockdown of cities and the rapid development of healthcare facilities within a short period. Even though it was late, the Chinese government was still able to maintain this situation, thanks to their extraordinary capacity in building the infrastructure and excessive budget.

The same consequence should be prepared by the Indonesian government for their current unaccountability if suddenly there is a rapid growth of virus’s carriers in the country. People put high trust in the government two years ago, however, lack of transparency lately and the government technical response in this virus outbreak will likely affect further trust. This demand is exacerbated by the fact that the Indonesian health index is ranked 103 among 137 countries based on World Economic Forum data.

Among other reasons, the lack of transparency is highly associated with the military colored administration. The involvement of the military in the state administration normally results in weak civilian and democratic control of the decision-making process. The military is one of the most tactical, well-organized and effective political power within a state. Diffusing the military-style leadership in the civilian bureaucratic might result in the effective yet closed top-down approach.

The president himself is currently surrounded by ex-military generals in his strategic posts and the minister of health is one of them. Restricted information in the outbreak mitigating is predictable due to the minister background. However, this military-closed approach should be linked with the democratic context of the country.

The latest data of World Economic Forum shows Indonesia still perceive the 48th rank among 137 countries in the public institution. However, people already frustrated with the unaccountable transparent decision-making process in the latest controversial strategic bills. Having another non-transparent approach in a matter that straightly affects their lives certainly affects their worriedness. Should we trust the non-transparent government with all of its capacity? Soon we will know the answer as the virus outbreak still goes.

Picture source: https://m.ayobandung.com/images-bandung/post/articles/2020/03/16/82822/74525-jokowi.jpg