Former KPK Chief: Public Governance Must Be Based on Firm Sanctions

Good and clean public governance must be based on laws with firm sanctions. The law in Indonesia should not only be sharp downwards but also sharp upwards. This was stated by former KPK chairman for the 2015-2019 period, Agus Rahardjo, during a seminar at the Harkat Negeri University (UHN) hall in Tegal, Central Java, on Wednesday (24/6). “In Singapore, government officials truly obey the law and are afraid of making mistakes. As a result, governance there runs well,” said Agus Rahardjo, citing an example of a country with clean and firm public governance. Agus Rahardjo noted that the law in Indonesia should not only be sharp downwards but also sharp upwards. “If that is done (the law is not only sharp downwards), Indonesia can be like Singapore,” he explained. UHN Tegal Rector, Sudirman Said, stated that good public governance leads to the state’s goal, namely the welfare of the people. “In this era, a fourth sector is needed to collaborate to jointly overcome various problems that impact the public,” said Sudirman Said. Sudirman Said mentioned that this could start from a government focused on the people’s interests, business actors/private sector, to non-profit organisations. “The major problems of this century (poverty, climate change, inequality) cannot be solved by one sector alone. Cross-sector collaboration between government, business, and civil society is needed,” explained Sudirman Said, adding that to realise public governance that impacts welfare, good collaboration from all sectors is necessary. The seminar was attended by UHN students, Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP), Internal Supervisory Units of Regional-Owned Enterprises (BUMD), representatives of academics from universities in the Central Java region, and other invited guests.