Digital governance in developing countries may seem to be a distant thought for many but it is certainly making its presence felt, and in a form which is different from that evident in the developed countries.
The growing use of information and communication technology (ICT) is catalysing the formation of knowledge societies, and thus providing greater avenues to people to participate in their own development process. The transformations occurring are unique and unprecedented in many ways and have the potential to reach those who hitherto have been marginalized from the decision-making processes.
We are entering into a brave new world where it will not be the leaders who govern people but it is the people who will let the leaders govern them - which is what's happening now in Jakarta.
So, elections are coming up, folks. Many people have decided or considering to support Ahok-Heru, the only independent set of candidates for DKI1&2. They are by far the only team that is open to the idea of transparent/digital governance. People support them for the positive performance they have been showing so far.
We trust them (or Ahok) and believe he is in the best team possible to get the job done the way it has to be done. It is hard to talk about public trust in government without talking about public confidence in government. Public confidence in government is concerned with the belief that the actions of Government will produce the right outcomes and seeing how things are getting better in Jakarta these days, I am certain that we could achieve a lot more if we keep this guy at the office for another round.
Public trust is inevitably an important barometer of public satisfaction, which comes with significant electoral consequences. Low public trust helps to create a political environment in which it is difficult, if not impossible, for leaders to succeed. Now here is the problem with our national politics, our leaders don't give a damn about how the public view their performance. There has never been any openly public framework that the everyday people / ordinary citizen could use to measure their leaders' performance.
And I think, we as a society are partially responsible for that. Because we are not politically literate enough to know what we deserve, what do we want them to do for us, what do we earn in exchange of the tax money we pay, how these few people that were elected could actually make our life better? Shouldn't we know about this? Have we put enough effort in educating ourselves though?
We used to just go "abstain" when it comes to voting on the election, because we trusted no one. But choosing "abstain" could mean that you support whoever will win, and contribute to the loss of the other candidates. Complicated? No. All we have to do is investigating the candidates - what their programs are, what policies/causes have they been fighting for, what their backgrounds are - business and track record. Don't get bogged down in bullshits that the corrupt media have been feeding us with, you know, things like their appearance, their ethnicity, their religion, and all these aspects that clearly have almost no political substance and carry absolutely no indicator of their capability to govern.
I can't stress this enough that it is our responsibility as a citizen to foster a political culture that is geared towards promoting an efficient but ambitiously effective, strong, inclusive and transparent government.
Make them afraid to be the most powerful people in town, because Jakarta is a mess and we demand a lot. Jakarta or any city for that matter is not a place where you can build your corrupt legacy and make yourself rich.
Jakarta is wild and chaotic, it is the center of everything; governmental institutions, businesses, all kinds of mafia - you name it. We have been suffering for far way too long, corporate terrorism, political abuse and public negligence have been unchecked and have obviously taken its toll on us. So, public trust and confidence are pretty expensive in this battle fighting for DKI1&2 seats.