Puan at IPU session: Governance must deliver justice
Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Puan Maharani said good governance must deliver justice by transforming political democracy into economic democracy and social justice.
She made the remarks in a speech at the 153rd General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), held at the Arusha International Conference Centre in Arusha, Tanzania, on Thursday.
“In line with this year’s theme, allow me to begin with a fundamental idea: good governance must be just governance,” she said, according to a statement received in Jakarta.
For Puan, democracy must give people a genuine ability to help determine the direction of policy, receive a fair share of progress and improve their quality of life.
She said efficient, orderly, transparent and effective government remained important, but these were all means to achieve a greater end. In that respect, she said, good governance could not be separated from justice.
“A country’s success should be measured not only by growth, procedures or institutional sophistication, but also by whether people have greater capacity to determine their own future,” she said.
Puan said just governance should broaden public participation and oversight, strengthen accountability in the exercise of power, prevent wealth and influence from being concentrated in the hands of a few, protect national sovereignty, and ensure that wealth and resources were fully used for the people’s welfare.
She said history had shown that economic power could become political power, which could then be used to perpetuate social and economic inequality.
“As a result, political democracy can never be truly substantive if economic power is so concentrated that the voice of a small minority carries far more weight than that of the public at large,” she added.
In this context, Puan said parliament occupied a strategic position as a bridge between popular sovereignty and state power. Parliament’s role was to translate the people’s voice into laws, budgets, oversight mechanisms and public policy.
“Democratic legitimacy does not end when an election is over. It must be continually renewed through state decisions that are fair, transparent and accountable, and that deliver tangible results for the people,” she said.
The 153rd IPU General Assembly is being held under the theme “Enhancing Good Governance and Empowering People through Inclusivity, Trust and Opportunity for All”.
Alongside the assembly’s programme, Puan was scheduled to take part in the election of the IPU’s 32nd president, to be held on Friday (9 October).