Solution to poor transparency

The results of a study undertaken by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), which has ranked Indonesia as the second least transparent country in Asia behind Vietnam, is certainly a blow to us, yet the study conducted through 1,000 expatriate respondents to assess transparency in Asia should be immediately and positively responded to.

As an organization concerned about transparency, we, the Consortium for Transparent Public Information (KUTIP) not only welcome the study but also at the same time appeal to the public to act in a dignified manner.

With regard to the matter above, we would like to express our views as follows:

First, the State Minister of Communications and Information should have handled the issue about information transparency by, for instance, disseminating various government policies to the general public.

Second, all public relations bureaus should be playing a far more active role in disseminating various regulations, decisions and policies issued by departments through an integrated communications program, instead of just distributing a press release to the media. If there is any overlapping, it is high time we straightened things out by synchronizing information policies among departments.

Third, all private companies and state owned companies (BUMN) should have professional corporate secretaries acting as their public relations specialists to enable the people directly involved such as shareholders, stake holders, suppliers, investors, business partners etc. to get easy access to the information required.

We call on all public relations consultants like Indonesian Public Relations Associations, Perhumas and others to encourage both the government and private companies to adopt public information transparency. This is very important because only through good corporate governance and good governance will there be law enforcement, which will eventually earn Indonesia the respect it deserves.

BUDI PURNOMO

Coordinator of KUTIP

Jakarta