The Environment and Meaningful Participation

Meaningful Participation

While the world is introducing the term ‘meaningful participation,’ the Indonesian government has deleted it. This means the local people are no longer able to contribute to the development plan and participate in the development.

In Indonesia, the term ‘meaningful participation’ was first introduced by the Constitutional Court when the Job Creation Law was enacted through Constitutional Court Decision Number 91/PUU-XVII/2020, which, in the process, did not comply with the provisions for the formation of laws and regulations: it did not involve the public in proposing its regulations.

Based on my research—which was written in my book titled ‘Demokratisasi Legislasi (Partisipasi Masyarakat yang Bermakna dalam Pembentukan Undang-Undang)‘, the process of ‘meaningful participation’ should involve all subjects that will be impacted in the whole development process, including marginalised, minority, and vulnerable people.

My suggestion is the government should consider all stakeholders –primarily subjects targeted– with four success indicators. First, the subjects can access the information about the development process; second, the subjects can actively participate in the whole development process; third, the subjects can easily monitor the whole development process; last, the subjects can give evaluations of the whole development process.

Thereby, meaningful participation in the development process can be optimally implemented. In other words, the AMDAL process should be re-implemented in the process of development.  

Editor Azrohal Hasan