Indonesia Launches Web Services for Public Requests & Complaints

Today Indonesia’s House of Representatives officially launched two web services devoted to public complaints and public information. Now Indonesians anywhere can submit a complaint online about the House of Representatives or about law enforcement. They can submit their message via SMS on their phone as well. People can access the service’s online data by registering on the web or by telephone.

The websites can be accessed by visiting pengaduan.dpr.go.id for public complaints, and ppid.dpr.go.id for public information access. Secretary General of the House, Nining Indra Saleh said that during the period of January to May 2011, the House of Representatives received as many as 539 complaints from the public and 83 requests for House data, including summaries of laws, initial drafts of bills, and reports from study junkets. But there are still many complaints and information service requests that were not well-distributed. With the new ‘Requests and the Public Complaints System’ websites, Indonesians in every area (especially in the far islands and cities) do not have to come to the capital Jakarta to express their requests to the government.

Along with the development of technology and internet penetration in Indonesia, the Requests and the Public Complaints System makes it easier for the Indonesian government to address challenges and criticisms.