Reflections: Sustaining and Growing Citizen Accountability Networks

by Emile Gozali

This is an introductory blog to inform everyone of my affiliation with ANSA-EAP and the work I am currently undertaking.  With regard to background, I am an economist who has spent some time (close to 20 years) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in various positions. I am presently on leave from the ADB, was earlier affiliated with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and am now working with ANSA–EAP.  The main purpose of this leave is to look deeper into the challenges of local government transformation in Indonesia, my country. By extension, the transformation of the public sector needs to be anchored on imbuing results-focused management in public organizations. By further extension, citizens—the ultimate clients of public services—need to play a key role if results focus is to be effectively installed in the government. 

The research that I am conducting is intended to be a practical one. The approach relies on dialogue with stakeholders on a proposed design of an accountability network. This is for a local government in Batam Island, Indonesia.  The assessment takes advantage of the experiences of organizations pursuing accountability (through the use of community indicators, report cards and the like) in India, Canada, and the Philippines. Following design refinements, a trial setup of the network will be conducted to further understand the nuances of network operations.
 

Reflections on media and social accountability: The case of Kendari TV and Radio Swara Alam

by A’o Dode

“…we at Kendari TV and Radio Swara Alam exert extra effort to serve as [Kendari society’s] diffusion agents.”

Social accountability is about the commitment to be accountable for plans and actions. It involves many stakeholders—like [the executive and legislative branches of] the government and citizens, which, of course, includes the media.

In my work as a media practitioner, I couldn’t help but notice that the perceived role of media here in Indonesia is to mediate or serve as a bridge in dealing with the interests and needs of the public. This, however, does not seem to suffice because of the [generally] passive characteristic of the citizens in Kendari city. There is a need to make people more connected to the media in order for our work to be more effective.

A Conversation with Teten Masduki (Part 3)

PART 3 of 3 – Teten Masduki articulates the connection between anticorruption and social accountability, and the revolutionary potential of people who are empowered to access and use information. He concludes with a vision of what he hopes to be able to do for and with Indonesia and the rest of the region in the next few years. Read part 1 and part 2

ANSA-EAP: I am sure you’re a board member of a lot of international organizations. What attracted you to ANSA-EAP, a relatively small effort?

Teten Masduki: ANSA-EAP’s concept is interesting to me. How do you engage society—from the government to the business sector and so on? I think ANSA-EAP’s idea to build and strengthen engagement between civil society and government is good. Civil society should be strong, have good capacity, knowledge, methodology. In my opinion, corruption is not only because of the government. We can establish an anticorruption commission or reform the Attorney-General’s office or the police, reform the bureaucracy but this will not be enough. Corruption will still be prevalent. Corruption is, after all, premised on the unbalanced relationship between society, government and the business.  When the government is too strong and the society is weak, corruption is very high.  So, I think ANSA-EAP’s social accountability perspective is helpful in equalizing and balancing this relationship.

Can we stop corruption in Indonesia?

By Ajit Joy

IT'S DECEMBER 9, [2010], the International Day against Corruption. Time to take stock of the developments in the corruption front in the last one year. Needless to say, it was a tumultuous year as far as the corruption scenario in Indonesia was concerned. Corruption dominated the headlines almost everyday.

The year saw several new cases of corruption that rocked the nation. The country witnessed the helplessness and lethargy combined with demoralization of government agencies tasked to fight corruption. People were also shocked by the complicity of the law enforcers in corruption scandals.

Nevertheless, on the positive side, there is a very interesting development. The civil society and media seem to be edging out the state as leaders in the fight against corruption.

They have never before been as vocal and outspoken as this. The loss for the state has been a gain for them and they have not shied from taking up this challenging initiative.

There is also clear indication that space in the fight against corruption is slowly being seized by people in general. Through Facebook protests and blogs and Internet campaigns and fund collections, ordinary public are slowly coming out to the forefront of Indonesia’s fight against corruption.

The country seems to be graduating into a mature stage wherein fighting corruption is truly becoming, and as it should be — everyone’s business.