To achieve Justice for the People of Indonesia

IL News 022/2017

Every citizen has a duty to participate in achieving the dreams of the nation. We also ought to ensure that the constitution is working properly. Every one of us has the right to challenge and rectify the practice which is not in agreement with the constitution through advocacy. A good constitution need to be accompanied by good policies and good budgets. For this, Johannes Leimena School of Public Leadership has a mission to equip public leaders with the knowledge and skills in advocacy and budgeting. This time, JL SoL worked in partnership with two experienced organisations in Advocacy for Public Policies and Budgeting, Forum Indonesia untuk Transparansi Anggaran (FITRA – Indonesia Forum for Budget Transparency) and Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum di Indonesia (YLBHI –  Indonesia Legal Aid Institute).

Yenny Sucipto, representing FITRA emphasises on the importance to have a budget that is aligned with Pancasila and the dreams of the nation so that the funds allocation will support the country in achieving its purpose. National Budget is our shared-concern. Unless we have a good budgeting, no matter how good a program, we will not be able to achieve the goal of the program. Yenny also urged everyone to pay attention to this matter because we participate by paying our tax. She then explained the process of budget planning: preparing, presenting, executing, and evaluating. These public leaders were trained to be watchful so that we can promote transparency in budgeting in order to have a budget that seek to promote justice and public welfare.

Apart from good budget, we also need to guard our public policies. The Constitution may be good, but often the government policies and programmes may not support or align with the constitution. Therefore, justice might not be administered properly. Asfinawati, the Chairperson of Indonesia Legal Aid Institute, encouraged all participants working together to support the Constitution, democracy and human rights by public policies advocacies to ensure that the government policies are based on the principle of justice and are in line with the Constitution. Participants were trained how to analyse government policies and basic advocacy skills. With these skills, we hope these public leaders will contribute in their fields in order to promote justice and fairness for the people of Indonesia.