Public hearings need to be taken seriously

Public hearings need to be taken seriously

A two-day public hearing on forest management starts in
Jakarta today. Arief Budiman takes a close look at this
unprecedented event.

SALATIGA, Central Java (JP): Former environment and population
minister Emil Salim said over the weekend that a public hearing
on forest management will be held in Jakarta today and tomorrow.
The public hearing is part of the ongoing Second Conference of
the Word Commission on forestry and sustainable Development.

Emil is the chairperson of the conference's executive
committee. He said indigenous people, government officials,
scientists, representatives of NGOs, donor countries and other
organizations would be invited.

The idea of having a public hearing before a public policy is
formulated has to be cheered. If the opinions expressed at the
conference could be incorporated in the forthcoming forest
management policy, there is no doubt that a constructive policy
will be produced.

Holding public hearings is not a new concept in Indonesia.
Last year, when he received an honorary doctorate degree from
Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, the head of the National
Development Planning Board Ginandjar Kartasasmita mentioned the
importance of having public hearings before public policy is
formulated. His statement attracted press coverage, and many
people supported him. However, nothing concrete has developed
since then.

This will strengthen the public impression that Ginandjar's
speech was no more than another public speech by a high-ranking
official that goes no further than the room in which it is
delivered.

Ginandjar himself has not pursued his appeal in a dramatic
way. However, in a silent way, something did happen. A sort of
public hearing was conducted by Ginandjar. This happened when he
accused some NGOs last year of giving damaging information to the
international community about the family planning program in
Indonesia. The accused NGOs responded and Ginandjar invited them,
together with other NGOs, to his office to have a sort of public
hearing. Many misunderstandings and mistakes on the part of
Ginandjar came to the surface. I don't know what the concrete
result of this meeting was. However, I do think what Ginandjar
did is something to be praised.

Now Emil Salim has again raised the issue. Unlike Ginandjar,
Emil talked in concrete terms. He mentioned the dates of the
public hearing, the topic and who will be invited. In this sense,
there is some progress in this business of holding public
hearings before formulating policy.

We have to praise this progress, but we can't avoid being
skeptical. The Indonesian people have witnessed many public
hearings at the House of Representatives on many issues. Much
useful advice has been given, many mistakes have been pointed
out, many good suggestions have been proposed, and yet the
results has been discouraging, if not quite non-existent. This is
why the House got its nick name: the 5-D institution. For it is
considered an institution where the members practice the 5-Ds:
"datang, duduk, dengar, diam, duit" (Come, Sit, Listen, Keep
Quiet and Get Money).

This doesn't mean that members of the House do not care. They
do. Some of them have been concerned about many problems in
society. Many of them try to do something but to no avail. The
problem is not that they don't care, but that they don't have the
power. They may have symbolic power, but real power is not in
their hands.

So, the information that they succeed in gathering can't be
transformed into public policies. They become public knowledge,
but the damaging public policies stay.

The main question that has to be asked of the public hearing
that Emil Salim wants to organize for the WCFSD conference is
whether it will affect forest management policy? The answer goes
back to the question whether the Minister of Forestry has enough
power to fight the vested interests that take huge advantage of
the mismanagement of forestry.

We all know that mismanagement in forestry has been so obvious
that we don't really need a public hearing to look for the hidden
problems. What we need is the power to act. And alas, this is
exactly what we don't have. In this situation, it is likely that
the public hearing will serve more as an entertaining event,
where people will hear how silly we have been without having any
power to change it.

However, the idea of having public hearing has to be welcomed
by all of us. I suggest that after this, it may be a good idea to
have a public hearing on corruption at all levels of public
office. A public hearing on the government's intention to build a
nuclear power plant in Jepara has also to be conducted very soon.
Even if there is no follow up, we can't say that we are not being
entertained by all these public hearings.

The writer is a researcher and sociologist living in Salatiga.