The Civil Society Alliance for Transparency, Inclusion, and Democracy (ASPIRASI) reminded us of the importance of the role of society in governance. Elected regional heads who do not involve the community face a number of challenges in encouraging public policies that are inclusive and free from corruption.
"To improve people's welfare, the Regional Government seeks to improve first public services, second empowerment, third community participation, and fourth regional competitiveness," explained Executive Director of the Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of Regional Autonomy (KPPOD) Herman N. Suparman in a discussion entitled "The Importance of Participation of Marginalized Groups and Media for Inclusive Public Policy on Tuesday (8/8).
In the KPPOD study, added Suparman, community participation is an important indicator in addition to economic, social, environmental, and governance indicators. This is one of the considerations in Law Number 23 of 2014 concerning regional government.
Haphazard election of officials
Executive Director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati, stated that officials will fill the regional government during the transition period as stipulated in Law 10/2016 in conjunction with Law 1/2015 in conjunction with Perpu 1/2014.
"Another consequence is that yesterday, for the 2020 local elections, their term of office was not 5 years until 2025, but until 2024. This has been stated in the Pilkada Law," Khoirunnisa explained.
The problem, said Khoirunnisa, is that the procedure for determining acting regional heads through direct appointment by the President and the Minister of Home Affairs is still haphazard. Meanwhile, said Khoirunnisa, the 1945 Constitution states that officials are elected democratically. This means that the appointment procedure must also be democratic.
Last year, the Constitutional Court explicitly and clearly provided guidelines and procedures regarding the appointment of acting regional heads. Decision of the Constitutional Court Number 67/PUU-XIX/2021, dated April 20, 2022, stated, "The filling of these officials does not ignore the principles of democracy and at the same time provides assurance to the public that the mechanism for filling in positions is open, transparent, and accountable in order to produce competent leaders with integrity, in accordance with the aspirations of the region, and work sincerely for the people and the progress of the region."
These signs are also listed in Constitutional Court Decision Number 15/PUUXX/2022 and Constitutional Court Decision Number 18/PUUXX/2022.
"For example, asking for the DPRD's considerations and so on, but in reality, since the Constitutional Court's decision was made last year until today, it seems that we have never received a document on which the appointment of an official is based," said the woman, who is familiarly called Ninis.
Article 4 of the Minister of Home Affairs Regulation 4/2023 stipulates that the nomination of the Acting Governor is carried out by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the DPRD through the Chairperson of the provincial DPRD. Here it is also clearly stipulated that the Ministry of Home Affairs and DPRD each propose three candidates who meet the requirements. The three candidates who pass the selection are then submitted to the president through the Minister of State Secretary.
While proposing acting regents and mayors, nominating candidates is carried out by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Governor, and the DPRD. Each proposed three candidates. From the selection of nine candidates, three names were determined, which were then submitted to the president to determine one name as acting regent or mayor.
However, what happened to the Ministry of Home Affairs was haphazard. The acting scheme that has been regulated by the constitution actually deviates from the procedure. Khoirunnisa is of the view that the procedure for determining officials cannot be separated from central interference. This practice certainly threatens the credibility of the 2024 election results.
"Don't let this official ignore the aspirations or participation of the regions because, for example, he is a central person, not someone who was directly elected, so it may not be smooth in policy making," he said.
He further explained that the Pilkada Law regulates that acting regional heads are sworn in for a term of one year. If it is more than one year, the government should have an assessment if it wants to extend the tenure of the elected regional head. Here is the need for public involvement:
"Are the policies of this official also addressing the needs of marginalized groups, for example, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, women, or young people? said Ninis.
Talking about community participation opens the door for the public to be involved in all dimensions of governance, from planning, budgeting, drafting, and approval. The community is also an important part of the monitoring and evaluation process for all of these dimensions. Unfortunately, the findings of the KPPOD study are still far from credible.
"If friends open the RKPD (Regional Development Work Plan), it is certain that it regulates participation, but in our other studies, for example, related to regional regulations, it actually only becomes a paper tiger but has no implications or is not realized in all of these dimensions," said Superman.
The KPPOD study even found that the Regional Government Law and its derivative regulations were still not accommodating vulnerable groups. Whereas in the context of public services, KPPOD sees three things, namely, policies, institutional designs, and service platforms. Even so, the community is still considered an object of policy.
"In the process of drafting derivative regulations, if the law is derived from regulations, especially in several government regulations, let alone the community, the regional government, which is the subject of development in that area, is also not involved in a meaningful way in the process of drafting regulations," said Suparman.
By involving the public in determining acting regional heads, it means that the government complies with and submits to the Information Commission's (KI) decision number 007/I/KIP-PSI/2023. This decision won a lawsuit by Indonesia Corruption Watch for the Ministry of Home Affairs to disclose information regarding the appointment of the acting regional head.
It is on this basis that ASPIRASI collaborates to map regional policies that still do not address the needs of marginalized groups. This effort is made so that the public can evaluate and provide input and responses to the performance of the acting regional head.
"If the regional head is definitive, we will fulfill his promise, yes, with his campaign promise. While this official is right, he does not have a campaign promise. But after all, he also needs to be assessed, "said Ninis.
Media collaboration
Chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia, Sasmito, has a similar view. He highlighted the non-transparent appointment of acting regional heads. Although the Ministry of Home Affairs claims that the procedure for determining officials is in accordance with the regulations, the facts are quite the opposite.
"What are the indicators? There has never been any disclosure or information on documents submitted by the president or the Ministry of Home Affairs to the public. Even as journalist friends, we have never been involved," he said.
In fact, said Sasmito, technology supports information disclosure for the public. Technological developments should be a tool for the Ministry of Home Affairs to involve the community in the procedure for appointing acting regional heads.
"So that we know, for example, that person A was chosen because of what and person B was not chosen because of what, don't let us know only at the end; for example, in Aceh when he was elected, he was still active as a TNI soldier," said Sasmito.
Sasmito added that even if the public was not involved, at least the local DPRD could also criticize the performance of the acting regional head. Even so, Sasmito asked the media to play a role in disclosing information about the appointment of officials at the election stage.
"What is no less important is that I think about the supervision of the regional head officials who have been elected. What we need to do upstream is maybe improve it at the level of public participation and policy oversight. I think this maximum policy oversight can be carried out by media friends," he said.
In order to maintain the independence of reporting, Sasmito reminded that regional media could collaborate with civil society in conducting surveillance. This is because it is unavoidable if the media in the regions still depend on advertisements from the local government.
Conduct a public test
Deputy Secretary General of Transparency International Indonesia (TII), Wawan Heru Suyatmiko, stated that regional heads are one of the pillars of national integrity. In TII's assessment, it was found that the national integration system that was most vulnerable to corruption issues included members of the legislature, officials in the regional and central governments, the police, business people, the private sector, judges, and ministers.
"From these pillars, it turns out that if integrity is not maintained and systematic processes are not maintained in the form of transparency, accountability, and community participation, then they are vulnerable and at risk of corruption," explained Wawan.
Wawan added that the Ministry of Home Affairs claims to have a quarterly assessment with three indicators: governance, development process, and society. Even so, society needs to look at it together.
"I'm worried because this regional head is part of the national integrated system; he is also very political, which of course cannot be avoided by the like and dislike process," he said.
He revealed that the Ministry of Home Affairs should prepare a number of requirements. This then becomes the specification for both the DPRD and the Ministry of Home Affairs when recruiting candidates. The next procedure, said Wawan, is that the Ministry of Home Affairs can conduct an open public test.
"Socialization or dissemination, whatever it is, gives space for the community to provide input," he concluded. []
NUR AZIZAH
