TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The results of a survey by Transparency International and the World Wide Web Foundation--released at the end of February--on the openness of data in handling corruption make sad reading. Indonesia, one of the countries behind the Open Government Initiative, has fallen to last place among G20 countries. Much information that should be available cannot be accessed, such as data on beneficial ownership, the land registry, political lobbyists, the voting record of legislators and the wealth of state officials.
As a result, it is difficult for the public to monitor and assist the anti-corruption movement, despite the findings by Transparency International and the World Wide Web Foundation of a connection between an improvement in the corruption perception index and the availability of data. This concept makes it possible for the public to freely access information. With regards to government performance, it is one way of supporting transparency and accountability and encouraging public participation. Therefore, the government needs to commit itself to allowing access to crucial data in order to seriously tackle corruption.
Concrete measures would be the commitment of President Joko Widodo, by issuing a regulation on Indonesia One Data. A bureaucratic culture that still harbors suspicions over an open data policy can change if the President, as the national leader, showed his commitment. This would also maintain the consistency we agreed to as an initiator of the Open Government Partnership with seven other nations, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Norway, South Africa and the Philippines.
The results of this initiative include a joint action between governments and the public to bring about transparency and accelerate the improvement of public services, as stated in Law No. 14/2008 on Access to Public Information and Law No. 25/2009 on Public Services. This movement, known as Open Government Indonesia, was launched in January 2012. Through this action, the government and non-governmental institutions sit down together to determine measures and policies to promote access to information on the activities of public entities funded by the state and public services that are of high quality, affordable and easy to use.
One example can be seen at Bojonegoro regency in East Java, which was selected to represent Indonesia at the 'Open Government, Open Regional Government Model' competition. Bojonegoro, together with Seoul, South Korea and Tiblisi, Georgia, competed against 13 major cities at the 2016 competition.
The people need to be informed about the benefits of open data. For example, how to access data, process it and distribute it to the public in a more comprehensible format. These benefits do not have to be 'high level' such as processing government finances. Smaller scale issues, such as daily information on the congestion of a city and the fastest public transport route to the office in the rush hour, could save time and money, and make city dwellers' lives better.
The benefits will be felt even better and more rapidly if this can be upgraded to national scale data, especially with regards to information on how corruption cases are being handled. (*)
Read the full story in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine