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It is most imperative to revise the Statistics Law
Until recently, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) still relied on traditional censuses and surveys, causing the cost of making the right decisions to be relatively high and sometimes with a significant time delay.
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A construction project for a national data center facility in Cikarang, Bekasi regency, West Java as seen on Feb. 6, 2024. (Antara/Livia Kristianti)
T
he hacking of the national data center reveals to us that our national data governance needs a major improvement. It is hard to believe that all data in the data center, collected at a high cost using taxpayers' money did not have a backup, a basic thing in data management.
When it comes to strengthening our data governance, the revision of Statistics Law No. 16/1997 is a crucial stepping stone that must be sped up. The governance of the national data center should be one of its regulated substances.
Unfortunately, although the law has been initiated by the legislation board of the House of Representatives and included in the list of the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) priorities in 2023, the progress has not been as expected.
Indeed, normally the establishment of a new law is a lengthy process starting from the planning, drafting, discussing, ratification and enactment. The progress of the revision of the 1997 Statistics Law itself is at the discussion stage so far. The government and the House are even still discussing the initial draft and its regulatory norms.
However, it can be sped up as long as there is a strong political will from both parties, the government and the House.
The coordination and collaboration of the two is key. There are many examples of the establishment of laws being sped up. The two key ones are the Law No. 3/2022 on Nusantara Capital City (IKN) and Law No. 11/2020 on job creation. Given its urgency, the revision of the 1997 Statistics Law is worthy enough to get the same priority.
The Statistics Law is an old legislation product created about 27 years ago. Put simply, it is outdated to regulate the current statistical era, even less that of the future. In the last few decades, the data ecosystem has changed dramatically.
