Depok, August 6, 2025 – The Policy, Governance and Administrative Reform (PGAR) Research Cluster and the Democracy and Local Governance (DeLOGO) Research Cluster of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Indonesia (FIA UI), held a joint academic collaboration known as the Brown Bag Discussion (BBD). The event took place at the Smart Class, 3rd Floor, FIA UI Building M.

BBD is a regular discussion forum aimed at bringing together experts, practitioners, and academics to address a variety of key issues, both national and global.

The discussion opened with remarks from Prof. Eko Prasojo, Head of the PGAR Research Cluster, and Prof. Irfan Ridwan Maksum, Head of the DeLOGO Research Cluster. The fourth series of BBD carried the theme “Local Democracy, Public Participation, and Public Trust in Local Government.”

The session was moderated by FIA UI lecturer Dr. Sidik Pramono, featuring speakers: senior researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Prof. Syarif Hidayat, Ph.D.; political expert from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP UI) Dr. Phil. Panji Anugrah; and FIA UI public trust and local participation expert Desy Hariyati, M.A.

Local Democracy in Regional Elections and Local Politics

According to Prof. Syarif Hidayat, decentralization in Indonesia has not substantially strengthened local democracy. He highlighted an ambivalence between the ideology of decentralization and its technical implementation, with a tendency towards uniform (symmetric) practices rather than asymmetric ones. Decentralization and regional autonomy, he argued, still bear state-centric characteristics.

“Decentralization policies remain pragmatic and partial, more power-oriented than people-oriented, with no synergy between the decentralization regime and the regional election regime. The Regional Election Law and the Regional Government Law lack strategic correlation,” he explained.

He stressed the need for effective decentralization within a unitary state framework and reform of the decentralization governance concept. Achieving this requires Proper Governance, which encompasses developmental, democratic, socially inclusive principles that are historically and culturally rooted.

Dr. Panji Anugrah noted that local democratization emerged after the New Order era but brought negative impacts such as the rise of local oligarchies. Political development at the local level is restricted by legislation, and local monopolies are common. Structural contradictions arise due to incomplete institutionalization of political parties.

“Challenges in local democracy include money politics, political dynasties, and bureaucratic politicization,” he stated.

High political costs hinder the emergence of new political elites, often leaving incumbents unchallenged. This is worsened by executive strengthening and legislative weakening, resulting in lower-quality policymaking.

Bridging Public Participation and Public Trust

FIA UI’s Desy Hariyati pointed out that public participation in local governance still faces many obstacles, notably the gap between government and citizens. Governments often believe the public lacks the competence or knowledge for policymaking, and that involving them consumes more time and resources. They also assume the public prioritizes personal over collective interests.

“Provincial governments are not sufficiently capable of engaging the public. They don’t fully understand what public participation means,” said Desy.

She noted that participation is often interpreted merely as physical attendance, without actual input in policymaking. This calls for strengthening institutional capacity to involve communities more effectively.

According to Desy, disparities between provinces in the era of regional autonomy have led to uneven levels of public trust, which remains concentrated on Java Island. Public trust, she stressed, is two-way—government trust also matters.

“In Indonesia, there is symbolic trust, based on hope and vulnerability, and transactional trust, built on exchanges between actors,” she explained.

Desy added that informal meetings are often more effective than formal forums, as people tend to feel intimidated in formal settings. Even when the public acknowledges government achievements, they do not automatically place full trust, continuing to criticize and evaluate government performance.

Prof. Syarif identified four main factors influencing public trust, the government’s ability to interpret and adapt central policies locally—sometimes in ways that maximize resources or revenue, with citizens focusing only on outcomes rather than processes, the ability to capitalize on knowledge of grassroots issues, alliances with local community groups, which can influence electoral support, alliances with the central government.

Complexity and Weakness in Strengthening Local Democracy

Speakers and participants agreed that fixing decentralization is complex and cannot be achieved merely by revising the Regional Government Law. As discussed in previous BBD sessions, it also requires simplifying other regulations, such as the Regional Finance Law.

Prof. Irfan emphasized that improvement demands stronger leadership from all stakeholders and the promotion of asymmetry in governance from top to bottom. National political focus, he argued, should be more directed toward managing politics and bureaucracy at the national level.

Closing the discussion, Prof. Eko Prasojo stated that decentralization has not yet substantively strengthened local democracy, as Indonesia has not reached a comprehensive and substantive democratic quality.

Strengthening local democracy, he stressed, requires two main priorities: empowering citizens so they can actively and substantively engage in political and policymaking processes, and strengthening local government bureaucracy to ensure democracy yields tangible benefits—effective, efficient, transparent, and accountable public services.