By: Didik Purwondanu, PATTIRO’s Senior Program Manager for Social Accountability
“Keep collaborating and never trust the government”, my closing sentence answered the question of a graduate student at the end of the public forum at the Open Government Hub, last Friday (19/9) afternoon. This invited applause and laughter from the participants present. This question was originally a question of how the strategy ensures sustainability of advocacy on issues of transparency and accountability (T/A), and I answered how many pitfalls there are in citizen participation, one of which is when an initiative is adopted then there is an opportunity for the government to accommodate initial idea by making their own interpretation.
This public forum is part of a workshop organized by Jonathan Fox from Professor at American University, from 18 to 20 September 2014. This event is a follow-up to a similar event last May, which invited theorists on the T/A issue. Apparently the results are not enough to provide understanding in the field, richer on the conceptual side. Not only me who shared empirical practices, there were also Renata Terrazas from Fundar Mexico and Felipe Heuser movement activists from Chile in the field of public participation who shared specific experiences in Latin America, such as advocacy at the elite level of the national government to creating movement community radio. That’s in the second session. Previously, there were popular activists from India, Nikhil Dey and Aruna Roy, who made films about the movement of non-party people fighting for the right to information, and what their massive campaign methods were. And there is Joy Aceron from Ateneo – Government Watch which more generally talks about the design of policy oversight.
I myself was asked by Jonathan to explain PATTIRO’s experiences in carrying out synergies between advocacy and public monitoring at the national and regional levels. Something he has termed since 2007 as vertical integration. At the beginning I opened with the story that Indonesia had just finished its homework on democracy called Presidential Election. The result is a new character who inspires many people. There are two lessons from this presidential election, the first is about volunteerism, opening opportunities for even the common people to donate even if it’s only one thousand or two thousand rupiah. Second, in terms of transparency and collaboration, the openness carried out by the KPU has provided an opportunity for five young people whom I refer to as the Pandawa, to make kawalpemilu.org a platform for thousands of people to contribute to counting the incoming votes.
After briefly explaining the profile of PATTIRO who has been active in T/A issues since 2000, I finally explained the vertical integration case studies in NTB and West Lombok. The main concern of the participants was the experience of CSO networks and communities, and how to build coalitions not only between them but also with the media. This presentation is also accompanied by photos of community activists, and pictures of E-PIS diagrams that have been expanded to the national level. After the event, several workshop participants approached and invited a discussion about some of the points that I mentioned earlier. The feeling of fatigue caused by jetlag and preparations since last month immediately disappeared, it was paid off with their enthusiasm.
To read the articles discussed in the public forum, Click here
