AboutIndonesia:e-governance

It seems like Indonesia is moving into the right direction. ALthough I don't know whether the current direction will turn back if the leader change after the general election. What I means about the right direction of course involve several aspects. One I want to say here is about e-governance.

Today I am searching statistical information about jakarta via google and yahoo. I found several local government websites such as the jakarta province government, statistical bureau, etc. I could easily download information that I need for my research via this website. A privilege I think I wouldn't get two or three years ago. Many governemnt agencies or other organisations also start to use internet to provide information to the public. This is a common practice for couple years in developed countries like Australia where most government agencies have well-maintained and up-date sources of information in their websites that can be easily accessed by the public. However, it is a new phenomenon in Indonesia. So I feel glad that many of the government agencies start to provide public information that can be accessed easily without bureaucratic barrier or difficulties for out of date reasons.

It is a must that public can have access to infomation if we want a strong civil society tht can monitor and act as a watch dog for better performance of the government. I am really glad that the process has started even in the regional level. More and more agencies have websites for public. And more importantly, the quality of the data is getting better over time. yes, sometimes it is out of date, but more often it is updated on at least monthly basis. This is definitely a good signal for Indonesia moving forward to better public service in terms of e-governance.

This is also a signal of reform happening inside government agencies, probably spurred by many young public servants who pursued higher education either within Indonesia or abroad, who aware of the importance of internet as a new media to facilitate the government and the people.

I hope this trend continue, more agencies implement e-governance approach, and the agecies which already tried to start it hopefully could increase the quality of information provided in their websites. Hopefully there is no backset to use internet merely as a media for enhancing the agencies image, but intention to serve the public.
If this trend continue, I am sure in the enar future, Indonesia can start tomove forward into the same level to other copuntries which have advancement in their public service. Of course there are many things need to do at the same time such as ensuring the implementation of decentralisation, ensuring the efforts to reduce poverty and combat corruptions are going in the right ways, providing access to internet for more and more people in all parts of Indonesia, etc. However, incerasing trend of e-governance in Indonesia definitely one way to spurred the process.