Indonesian Youth: The Dark Horse of Democratic Change

1998 was the year when Indonesia started to question their identity by deconstructing their past to the future. Taking parallels to the Greek mythology, a literal Pandora box had been unleashed along the process. People in Indonesia have witnessed how riots, financial crisis, and violence culminated within one year, impacting millions of lives. But one fact was unbeknownst to many, as the mythology also mentioned that the particular Pandora box also brought a spirit of hope for society, in this case, a spirit named democracy and good governance after 32 years of dictatorship. The country needs to give its utmost gratitude towards the youthRecognizing that investing in youth means investing in a better future, OGP participating governments are creating meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in government processes. Technical ... More that had stood on the frontier during the rebirth of the nation’s democracy.  

Since its conception from the early days of Indonesia’s independence in the late 1940s, democracy in Indonesia has been constantly developing into a favorable direction – only halted by authoritarianism started in the late 1950s led to full-scale dictatorship in the late 1960s. Society, particularly youth, now possesses more freedom to express and congregate. The action started by varsity students in 1998 undeniably evolved into various organic movements, which cemented youth as the defining stakeholder in building the nation.

One of the primary examples of this would be from “Change.org” where petitions have been proven effective in fostering changes in how we formulate policies. Change.org, as the biggest petition platform in the world has opened representative office in Indonesia. The man behind this site is Usman Hamid, one of the student activists who took part in 1998 reformation movement. It is hoped that there will be more ‘Usman Hamid’ emerged from youth that will help nurture democracy and good governance in Indonesia.

The number of youth in Indonesia currently is 40 millions people, which is 18 percent of the national population. Thus, youth power is a formidable force that needs to be utilized into greater extent. Putting youth as only dark horse and ignoring their potencies will only prolong the chance of government collapse all over again. Chances are, not many youth feel facilitated by the government to share the aspiration towards national problem. Current youth shouldn’t waste their energyEnsuring universal access to sustainable, dependable, and affordable energy is critical to every aspect of prosperity. Increasing public oversight and transparency in the energy sector can help to ens... More and criticize the government by physically shouting in front of parliament building anymore. There is a more sophisticated way, initiated by the Open Government Indonesia which is Model Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (MOGP).

Indonesia has Introduced MOGP as part of our meaningful engagement with youth on global openness. The first ever MOGP was held in 2013, hosted by the Open Government Indonesia Secretariat, modeled as a comprehensive simulation of OGP meetings and operations. The notion of MOGP would be to, as officially stated, introduce youth, in Indonesia and beyond, to the intent and purpose of open government initiative in general, while introducing a new game-changing model of international cooperation. It is expected that participating youth will be able to understand how significant their participation is within the governmental process.

This year, MOGP is expected to be done organically by youth themselves in their respective universities or even high schools. Through the movement of OGP, along with the spirit of open government, ideas are expected to spark and turned into definitive solution of national openness. MOGP will be the arena where youth can battle their wits and experience first-hand democracy and open government in practice, as they will be the next generations to succeed the government in the future. To fulfill that intention, Open Government Indonesia Secretariat will conduct social media campaign in order to promote MOGP’s official website, mogp.opengovindonesia.org. This site will be the beacon of inspiration and reference for youth to take part in the MOGP movement and become the agent of democratic change in Indonesia.

Join us to promote meaningful youth engagement in open government through Model Open Government Partnership (MOGP)!

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