2023 Indonesia Democracy Index Released to Help Maintain Indonesia’s Democratic Condition

The Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released the 2023 Indonesian Democracy Index (IDI) in Jakarta on Monday (10/6). 

IDI serves as a crucial measure to monitor the progress of democracy in Indonesia. Indonesia has included the IDI as part of its development targets within the 2010-2014 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), 2015-2019 RPJMN, and 2020-2024 RPJMN, as well as in the 2025-2045 National Long-Term Development Plan (RPJPN) and Regional Long-Term Development Plans (RPJPD).

Deputy for Domestic Political Coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Major General Heri Wiranto, revealed that Indonesia scored a 79.51, surpassing the target set in the 2023 Government Work Plan of 79.25, despite a slight decrease of 0.9 points from the 2022 score.

Deputy for Politics, Law, Defense, and Security of the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, Bogat Widyatmoko, emphasized the importance of the 2023 IDI in planning various national priority programs. "Although these core indicators are updated annually to reflect the latest developments, the 2023 IDI will at least serve as a reference indicator in the 2025-2045 RPJPN. Bappenas will use IDI to guide priority planning activities for national development," Deputy Bogat said.

Collaboration in the preparation of IDI also involved provincial governments, academics, mass media, and the public. IDI is compiled based on real incidents recorded over a full year from various news sources, focused group discussions, as well as data from central and regional agencies. This approach differs from other international indices which are typically expert-based assessments. 

"The current IDI score is not solely derived from newspaper sources or expert comments, but from a complex process involving various focused group discussions at both central and regional levels," explained Deputy for Social Statistics of the Central Statistics Agency, Ateng Hartono.

Regarding the lower score in 2023, Deputy Heri Wiranto, representing the Central IDI Compilation Team, explained that this decline was due to a decrease in the Central IDI score by 1.15 points and the Provincial IDI by 0.74 points. "We emphasize that the impact of elections on the decline in the IDI score is only partial, as the decline in other indicators is not directly related to the elections," he stated.

Looking ahead, both the central and regional governments need to develop programs to strengthen and consolidate democracy using the 2023 IDI database, which should serve as a collective reflection to enhance commitment to maintaining the quality of democracy in Indonesia.