INDONESIAN CSOS’ EXPERIENCES IN ADVOCATING FOI LAWJosi Khatarina

Henri Subagiyo

Indonesian Center for Environmental law

Coalition for Freedom of Information

The History

The Fall of New Order

Legal Reform (Amendment of Constitution UUD 1945; The Act No. 28/99 to ensure Government that is clean and free from collusion, corruption and nepotism, Tap MPR No. VIII/2001); ICEL comparative study on open government laws

1997

1999

2001

First Draft of FOI law was launched by ICEL then initiated with different organization the establishment of coalition for freedom of information,

2002

The coalition first draft of FOI law was adopted by the Parliament

2005

President gave his mandate to the relevant Minister to represent government in discussing the draft

2008

The law was enacted

The law is enforced

2010 - now

Strategy

۩ Campaign ۩ Networking۩ Developing cases to

show the importance of access to information in different issues; education, health, women empowerment, etc

۩ Lobby ۩ research center۩ Developing the

capacity of decision makers (comparative study, literature support, regular discussion, etc)

The Principles

MALE: max access limited exemption – covers all kind of information and advocating the use of 2 tier of exemption: consequential harm test and balancing public interest test;

Proactive information; The FOIA as the instrument to harmonize different law

related to public access to information; A strong institution to ensure the implementation of the

law; we brought up different option for the institutional set up, such as two different institutions;

The accessible, prompt, and simple access; Dispute resolution that is quick, not complicated and easy

for the common; Sanction for those who hamper public access to

information; Whistleblower protection.

Challenges

The status quo; i.e. monopolistic economic group, etc;

The government stick to their old paradigm that the openness will only benefited the foreign agenda;

The civil society themselves faced difficulty to brought to issue to a larger audience. Thus, the NGOs that are involved mostly those who are working in the area of media, anti corruption and human rights. While those who are working in basic public needs such as education, welfare, etc might consider this important but not directly involve in the advocacy work;

Conclusion: The Key to Enactment

Social and political climate. The fall of the New Order in 1997 opening up the movement to combat corruption and to enhance good governance in Indonesia;

Strong lobby with decision makers; Strong research and comparative

study with different countries.

CSOs’ HomeworkEnsuring the Effective Use of the Law

Substance of the law: Harmonization with different law; Harmonization with the local regulation on FOI; Developing research concerning how to implement the

exemption; Assisting the Commission in developing the technical

guidelines. Structure:

Creating best practices by assisting public body to develop SOP, training, etc;

Promoting the establishment of strong and independent central and local information commission.

Culture: Enhancing public capacity and awareness of the public to use

the law in demanding information; Shifting the bureaucracy culture to perceive public access to

information not as the threat to their work (promoting openness).