Digital democracy has affected some government policies. It adds to the type of democracy being implemented by Parliament at the House and street parliament (demonstration).
Dr. Dedy Permadi, managing director of Center for Digital Society (CfDS) of Faculty of Social and Poitical Sciences UGM, said the digital democracy has become an interesting phenomenon recently and it has attracted quite an attention to influence a government policy.
Dedy Permadi said at the Faculty on Thursday (23/3) when running a press conference on the review of Online Petition on Change.org. He said that there were three categories to articulate interests through online petition, those done by anomic group, associational and institutional groups. The institutional group is represented by police, military, teacher’s association, associational group Indonesian Trade Association, Indonesian Veterinarians Association, etc.
“What is interesting is the emergence of anomic group that suddenly at random, unplanned, non-organisationally, non-institutionally, came out of the blue, influencing policy making,” he said.
Hence, government should start to think of a new system to welcome the digital parliament. In contrast, street parliament and parliament at the House (DPR) have already their own mechanisms and rules.
Viyasa Rahyaputra, Research Manager of CfDS added that not all online petition affected policy making as showed by fact that of all 1,521 online petitions being investigated by CfDS UGM from February 2016-February 2017, only 4 online petitions that won or been followed up in the policy process.
“The four petitions that won might be due to their clear target, in addition to demonstration acts that more strengthened this petition to be followed up by government,” he said.
Viyasa added online petition with large votes not always gains attention or follow up.
Viyasa said online petition as a tool to articulate interests has not been used optimally by Indonesians. “Online petition has not been used maximally in Indonesia as compared to the practise in some other countries that already have more mature digital democracy,” he said.
Chiara Anindya, research assistant, added of all 1,521 online petitions being investigated, average political petition each month reaches 52.3. The highest figure of target of petition is the government with 518 petitions (82%).
"Issues on justice and equality are the biggest issues - at 318 - to which petitions are made, followed by policy petition with 126 petitions," he added.