T

he Central Information Commission (KIP) and President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo have called on all public institutions, local administration and state-owned companies to provide more access to their public information in order to build trust.

All decision making processes with regard to public policies need to be disclosed to the public, explained KIP head Abdulhamid Dipopramono.

'€œIf an openness to information becomes intrinsic to our attitude and culture, this will eventually bring about a mutual trust between all parts of the nation and soon we will have good and clean governance. Open information [and access to it] is a form of corruption prevention,'€ Abdulhamid said.

The statement was made during an event at the State Palace on Tuesday, during which KIP awarded public institutions for their efforts to provide better public information.

This year, KPI recorded greater participation in the survey on which the awards for performance have been based.

For 2015, participation levels reached 47 percent, up from 40 percent last year and 38 percent in 2013.

However, participation levels continue to be on the low side, with only 180 public institutions from the total 386 surveyed by KIP reporting back to the commission.

The survey assessed how an institution has taken part in announcing and providing public information; its service and public information management.

During the KIP event, Jokowi presented the awards granted to the top three institutions in each category.

This year, the institutions to receive awards were, for ministerial institutions, the Finance Ministry, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry and the Industry Ministry; for public institutions, the Indonesian National Archives Agency (ANRI), the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) and the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Lapan); and for non-structural institutions, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK), the General Elections Commission (KPU).

None of the country'€™s 12 political parties received points in the survey. KIP said it had been unable to assess five out of 12 parties as they did not mail back the questioners sent to them.

Abdulhamid also lamented that six provinces had yet to set up provincial information commission offices, despite the 2008 Public Information Law, which came into force in 2010, ordering the establishment of such an office in all provinces within a time frame of no more than two years after the enactment of the law.

Abdulhamid hoped that Jokowi'€™s presence during the event would help push the six provinces to comply with the law.

Without the government'€™s strong commitment to push for improved transparency, or what Jokowi has deemed as an open government, the commission, which has handled 70 percent of the 5,000 public information disputes since its establishment in 2009, might remain powerless.

For example, the National Police have yet to comply with a 2011 KIP ruling in which the police were ordered to disclose information on the suspicious bank accounts of a number of high-ranking police officers following a petition filed by anti corruption campaigners.

In his speech, Jokowi called on all public institutions to adapt to the growing needs of public information transparency by reforming their mind-set, systems and work patterns.

'€œWe are currently in a new era where the pattern of relations between the government and the people has changed. The people [now] want transparency and information disclosure; people want dialog and an interactive relationship between government and the public. People want a government that is quick to respond to their complaints,'€ he said.