Entering the second term of President Joko Widodo’s administration, The Center for Legal and Policy Studies (Pusat Studi Hukum dan Kebijakan or PSHK Indonesia) hosted an FKP event on Tuesday, 10 December 2019 to evaluate and foresee the prospects and challenges that may be faced in his second term in office. The speaker in this event was M. Nur Sholikhin of PSHK Indonesia.

After President Joko Widodo’s first 5 years in office, ministries in his administration have revoked and revised hundreds of regulations both in the national and regional level, and developed a database of regulations across government institutions. However, even with these efforts, regulatory problems remain as the development planning was not integrated with legislation planning. Between 2014 and 2018, there were 7621 Ministerial Regulations, 7621 Ministerial Regulations, 452 Government Regulations, and 107 Laws issued. This hyper-regulation problem makes it difficult for institutions to harmonize and synchronize. In addition, there is no institution that conducts monitoring and evaluation of regulations across ministries/institutions.

President Jokowi’s mission statement for his second term is to continue the existing efforts of organizing the rule of law. His programs include improving the harmonization of regulations, simplifying existing regulations and avoiding excessive regulations, and improving the quality of regulations to support creativity and performance and productivity, as well as to provide a sense of security and fairness for the people. The president has also mentioned several priority programs in his next term, which includes creating a Special Regulatory Agency, issuing the Omnibus Law, and ordering regional governments to issue fewer regulations that hinder investment.

For the President Jokowi’s current term, Sholikhin believes that eliminating sectoral ego is important to solve the problem of hyper-regulation. The implementation of the Omnibus law must also be conducted through a participatory, transparent, and accountable legislation process. In addition, the creation of a new Regulatory Agency will be a significant step to improve regulatory management in Indonesia. Sholikhin also calls for the revision of Law No. 12 of 2011 on Lawmaking.

For the complete presentation and Q&A session, please refer to the video and materials provided.