Establishing the Open Parliament Indonesia Institution (ID0110)

What issues does the commitment address?
The Open Parliament Institution is the main implementing unit of the National Action Plan. Today, the Indonesian House of Representatives is yet to assign an institution that will implement the Open Parliament Indonesia Action Plan.

What is the commitment?
Establishing the Open Parliament Indonesia, which shall include Members of the Indonesian House, as well as representatives from the Secretariat General of the House and civil societies.

How will the commitment address the problem?
The availability of an OPI Secretariat will ensure the implementation of action plan and provision of budget and supporting resources. This shall include the action plan implementing mechanism.

How does the commitment relate to OGP values?
This commitment will provide more opportunities and promote more public participation in achieving an open parliament. Meanwhile, the role of society in an open parliament will improve the parliament’s accountability to the public.

See action plan for additional commitment milestones.

5. Establishing the Open Parliament Indonesia Institution

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

Establishing the Open Parliament Indonesia, which shall include Members of the Indonesian House, as well as representatives from the Secretariat General of the House and civil societies.

Milestones:

1. Formulation of a policy paper on OPI model institution.
2. Formulation of a Decree of the Organizational Structure of Open Parliament Indonesia based on the principles of collaboration and co-creation.
3. Formulation of the OPI implementation mechanism.
4. Monitoring and evaluation.
5. Making reports.

Start Date: September 2018                                                                  End Date: June 2020

Context and Objectives

The House of Representatives of Indonesia declared the Open Parliament Indonesia (OPI) initiative in August 2018. ^[179] This marked a major step in furthering interparliamentary cooperation in Indonesia. Before joining the open parliament initiative, the House of Representatives was already active in other international frameworks such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Global Organization of Parliamentarians against Corruption (GOPAC).

Shortly following this declaration, Parliament created five open parliament commitments for inclusion in Indonesia’s fifth action plan. In this particular commitment, Parliament aims to establish an Open Parliament Indonesia institution to support the implementation of the open parliament initiative.

According to the IPC, an OPI institution is necessary for a variety of reasons: ^[180]

• Sustaining open parliament implementation, regardless of transitions in House leadership, through a mechanism that mandates the parliament allocate budget and resources to enact and support open parliament activities;
• Creating an incentive for civil society to participate in open parliament initiatives through a clear mechanism for collaboration between Parliament and civil society; and
• Coordinating the development and implementation of open parliament action plans across Parliamentary work units and civil society representatives.

Before establishing the OPI institution, the House will collaborate with civil society to study open parliament implementation in other countries. In an interview, the IPC explained that Parliament has been exploring several options that can work for an OPI institution. Ideally, the institution would be incorporated as an official work unit within the parliament, such as with the Open Governance Permanent Parliamentary Council ^[181] in Georgia. The OPI institution will then be formalized through a House Regulation. Additionally, the creation of an implementation mechanism could also help establish clear rules of procedure for future open parliament action plans.

This commitment carries moderate potential impact to change the landscape of citizen engagement in parliamentary process as well as establishing a clear avenue for civil society to collaborate with the parliament in achieving open parliament objectives. However, as this would mean establishing an entirely separate process from the existing OGI-coordinated mechanism, OPI would need to start building the open parliament framework in Indonesia from scratch. The 2019 election season could also bring leadership changes that restrict the implementation of this commitment.

Next Steps

Indonesia’s participation and leadership in a wide array of international initiatives to open up parliamentary processes indicate Parliament’s commitment to abide by global standards of openness and transparency. In November 2018, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives for 2014–2019 Fadli Zon met with Anthony Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) at the Indonesian Embassy in London. ^[182] In this meeting, WFD reiterated its intention to continue the partnership with the House in improving parliamentary transparency and citizen engagement in Indonesia.

To achieve strong implementation, Parliament must continue to nurture such partnerships. Not only do they provide an opportunity to be part of a global forum working on a similar goal, but Parliament can learn from the best practices and failures that parliaments in other countries have experienced. By doing so, Parliament can ensure an effective and efficient implementation of open parliament in Indonesia.

In implementing this commitment, Parliament should consider the following steps:

• Explore the opportunities to streamline the open parliament process with the OGI National Secretariat by collaborating on the creation of standard references;
• Consult the OGI National Secretariat to learn from its experience in coordinating OGP process as well as in developing the National Strategy for the OGI National Secretariat; and
• Replicate a mechanism similar to OGP’s multistakeholder forum to gain and maintain high-level support and engagement for the open parliament initiative.

[179] House of Representatives, “Open Parliament Dekatkan DPR dengan Rakyat” (2018), http://www.dpr.go.id/berita/detail/id/21853/t/Open+Parliament+Dekatkan+DPR+Dengan+Rakyat.

[180] Ahmad Hanafi (Indonesian Parliamentary Center), interview by IRM researcher, 8 Mar. 2019.

[181] Parliament of Georgia, “Open Governance Permanent Parliamentary Council” (accessed Mar. 2019), http://www.parliament.ge/en/saparlamento-saqmianoba/komisiebi-da-sabchoebi-8/ppcotg.

[182] Puguh Hariyanto, “DPR RI dan WFD Sepakat Dukung Keterbukaan Parlemen di Level Global” (Sindo News, 17 Nov. 2018), https://nasional.sindonews.com/read/1355398/12/dpr-ri-dan-wfd-sepakat-dukung-keterbukaan-parlemen-di-level-global-1542384983.

5. Establishing the Open Parliament Indonesia Institution

Substantial:

A decree on the organizational structure of Open Parliament Indonesia was passed, applicable to 2020. Monitoring and evaluation meetings were scheduled every three months and reports were published each year, but both suffered from delays, particularly when results reflected unfavorably on parliament. The parliament produced the Open Parliament Indonesia implementation mechanism providing tools for planning, implementation, evaluation, and mutually-agreed decision-making but the tools were only used by three units (a small portion of parliamentary units). Open Parliament Indonesia plans to conduct meetings to improve utilization by other units. Work on a policy paper on the Open Parliament model institution is also ongoing, as the paper was not completed during the implementation period. [103] Efforts to institutionalize Open Parliament Indonesia were carried forward into the sixth action plan.