Why data? Not so long ago, if we asked the government about rice production, there was no single answer to the question. The Agriculture Ministry’s data is different from that produced by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog); even the Trade Ministry and the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) had contrasting data.

Who, how many and where the poor lived somehow remained a source of disagreement between the Social Affairs Ministry and the National Team for Poverty Reduction Acceleration, despite the very fact that this data formed the basis for the distribution of various social welfare schemes.

Some protected forest areas registered under the Environment and Forestry Ministry were also registered as mining concession areas, the licenses for which were issued by local governments or the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. Areas that belonged to indigenous people and customary forests had, in fact, different statuses according to the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry/National Land Agency. The list could go on and on: From food to health, from mining to maritime and fisheries.

When brought to the table, each ministry would defend itself, insisting that their data was the most valid simply because the data were “regulated” under their own regulatory framework or even laws. This is where the real problem is: How can we have proper development strategies or accurate policymaking with the absence of single-reference, precise and reliable data, be they statistical, spatial or administrative?

Different from the “visible” development of physical infrastructure such as roads, airports, dams and ports, the development of data as non-physical policymaking infrastructure is invisible. At times, it is imperceptible and obscure, but still benefit the lives of many when the policies run accurately and precisely.

Some might recall the Satu Data Indonesia (Indonesia One Data), the government’s effort to build and compile a single-reference data set for policymaking. Although it is still awaiting its legal basis, many agencies and public institutions are already aware of its importance.

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