Proposal to Increase Central KPI Members to 11 in Baleg Meeting, PKS: Wasteful

The Legislation Body (Baleg) of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) held a Harmonisation Working Committee meeting on the Broadcasting Bill. During the meeting, a proposal emerged in the draft to increase the membership of the central Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) from 9 to 11 people.

This is stipulated in Article 9 of the Broadcasting Bill draft proposed by Commission I of the DPR on Monday (24/8/2026). The following is the text of the proposed article read out by a DPR expert staff member:

Article 9

1. KPI members shall number 11 (eleven) people

2. Provincial KPI members shall number 5 (five) people

3. The membership of the KPI and Provincial KPI as referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall come from representatives of:

1. Broadcasting institutions,

2. academics,

3. the public,

4. the DPR, and

5. the Government, with due regard to a minimum of 30% government representation

“I am just anticipating questions from the public for my Commission I colleagues. Under the old law, central KPI members numbered 9, while regional members numbered 7. Now it is 11 and 5. If I may ask for an explanation of the basis for 11 and 5, so that the public can fully understand and accept this law,” said Baleg member Mardani Ali Sera, who is also Head of the PKS Election Winning Body, during the meeting.

A similar view was expressed by PKS Baleg member Jazuli Juwaini. He said that having 11 central KPI members would be wasteful.

“In my opinion, 11 KPI members is too many, Sir. Even the KPU, which elects the president and people’s representatives, only has 9 members, so there is wastefulness here,” said Jazuli.

He proposed that the central KPI have 9 members, with equal distribution among DPR, government, and public elements. He stressed that the most important thing is that KPI members must be independent.

“So divide it as before: 3 from the DPR, 3 from the government, or 3 from the public. Because otherwise it would be strange. The most important thing to safeguard is the KPI’s independence,” he said.

Deputy Chairman of Commission I of the DPR RI, Dave Laksono, explained the proposal to increase central KPI members while reducing provincial KPI members. He said the supervisory function would be more emphasised at the central level.

“Why change from 9 to 11 and reduce the regional numbers? Firstly, the supervisory function is indeed being pulled to the centre, because regional broadcasting institutions used to include many regional TV stations. Now most, or perhaps almost all, of them have been merged into one, so everything is now centralised,” said Dave.

The substantive discussion of Article 9 will be continued in a future meeting. Nevertheless, Baleg Chairman Bob Hasan said the number of 11 KPI members remains approved.

“This means we are deferring Article 9, and the substantive review will be presented at the next meeting. We have now decided to keep it at 11, correct? It remains 11, Sir,” said Bob Hasan, which was approved by the meeting participants.