The fresh wind of public information openness is starting to blow in West Bandung Regency, West Java Province. This was marked by the issuance of the Regent’s Decree Number 800/Kep.336-Dishubkominfo/2013 concerning the Appointment of Information and Documentation Management Officers (PPID) in Regional Apparatus Organizations within the West Bandung Regency Government. The decree signed by the Regent of Abu Bakar on 22 April 2013 stipulates the composition and personnel of the PPID in 51 regional apparatus organizations, including the Department of Health.
PATTIRO West Bandung as an element of civil society organizations since January 2013 began to actively promote public information disclosure in West Bandung. The approach taken is through the cultural side and capacity building of key figures. From a cultural point of view, PATTIRO invites the public to be actively involved in transmitting the idea of information disclosure through film media and citizen connectivity through social media networks and information dissemination of short SMS messages. As of the last four months, one of these ideas has resulted in two docudrama and graphic design films. Films were screened in various activities and invited all walks of life. Even in the West Bandung Regional Head Election a few months ago, the issue of public information disclosure began to become a priority program for some regent candidates. The current stages of discussion of the KUA-PPAS carried out by the council and local government are encouraged to be more transparent and participatory.
Capacity building for key local figures is carried out by involving NGO activists and relevant local government officials in training related to understanding public information disclosure. For example, in the last three months PATTIRO Bandung Barat has collaborated with the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) in PPID capacity building training in Jakarta. In addition, the information request training conducted by the Alliance of Indonesian Journalists (AJI) and The Center for Law and Democracy for civil society in Bandung also involved several community leaders in West Bandung.
Along the way, several requests for information through the UU KIP procedures have been made by residents. An example is a request for information regarding the planning and use of the West Bandung KPU budget. Even though in the process the information applicant failed to meet the administrative requirements, it was enough to make the KPU worry. In its release, West Bandung KPU did not hesitate to state that it did not know whether the information requested was open or not, so it was necessary to coordinate with the Provincial KPU. Even a letter of reply from the KPU was delivered directly by one of the commissioners directly to the home of the information requester.
Another problem also arises when the formation of PPID in public bodies seems to only abort obligations. In the West Bandung Discussion Forum which was held on July 23, the secretary of the Health Office who is also the Head of the Supporting PPID in his agency admitted that he had just read UU KIP the night before the event. When residents asked about what types of public information could be accessed, the secretary of the district was unable to answer. Even so, it was acknowledged by the West Bandung Dishubminfo Representative, that a thorough socialization had not been carried out by his party due to a lack of budget.
Some of these technical problems can clearly cause losses for public bodies themselves. Recently, the KBB Health Service was reported by several mass organizations to the West Java High Prosecutor’s Office regarding allegations of “playing games” in the procurement of goods and services for medical devices. Regardless of other facts, cases like this are clearly related to information disclosure in terms of procurement of goods and services. If only public bodies were open in the bidding process and the public could access them, this could of course be minimized. The fact is that they don’t even have basic things like websites for public bodies.
Therefore, West Bandung PATTIRO encourages public bodies to fully implement the mandate of UU KIP. PATTIRO also initiated the existence of the West Bandung Discussion Forum (FDBB) as a mediator between the community and the government, as well as a means of transferring and studying public ideas. The inaugural activity was carried out on July 23 with the theme of encouraging public information disclosure in the health sector. This was a collaboration between PATTIRO and Nasyiatul Aisiyah, West Bandung Regency. The plan is for Nasyiatul Aisiyah members who are spread across 16 sub-districts to become public information cadres who encourage information disclosure in their respective regions.
