BPS of East Java Province held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) event for the 2020 Indonesian Democracy Index (IDI) from Wednesday to Thursday (21-22 / 04/2021). The event, which was held boldly, was attended by various groups, from government agencies, academics and NGOs. This activity is one of the stages of preparing the IDI 2020, which aims to show the level of development of democracy in Indonesia.
According to the Head of the National and Political Unity Agency (Bakesbangpol), Jonathan Judianto, this IDI FGD activity must be passed to measure the extent to which the implementation and development of democracy in East Java in 2020. Furthermore, Jonathan explained that even though the IDI in East Java in 2019 was 77 , 68, is still above the national figure (74.92). However, in the position of East Java, it is still in the middle of the development of Indonesian democracy. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate three aspects that are used to calculate the IDI (civil liberties, political rights, and democratic institutions).
The head of the East Java Provincial BPS, Dadang Hardiwan, on the same occasion stated that the IDI as a composite index has been built since 2009 in collaboration between BPS, Kemenkopolhukam, Bappenas and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The principle of the IDI score is not to be compared between provinces. But to examine how our province has progressed at the democratic level. In the last 10 years the East Java IDI was once below the national figure (under 60) but now the East Java IDI is getting better. According to him, the aspect of civil liberties does not rely solely on the government and the apparatus. Public awareness and opinion also needs to be considered.
This IDI FGD was carried out by submitting the results of the coding and documents that were the findings of the BPS team, then conducting a joint discussion regarding the appropriateness of the coding as data in the IDI calculation. The IDI event was held intensively and attractively. Each participant is given space to openly submit arguments or additional data / facts. The event, which was hosted by the Coordinator of the Social Statistics Function of the East Java Province BPS, went smoothly and the results would feature in-depth interviews to ensure and add information from the speakers / experts who were present.
