Slow progress: Skyscrapers in Jakarta’s business district. Experts say Indonesia’s digital-government efforts suffer due to political turnover and shifting agendas. — AFP
IN an era defined by technological acceleration and growing expectations among its citizens, the imperative for Indonesia to embrace digital governance is no longer optional, it is essential.
Governments worldwide are leveraging digital tools to enhance transparency, accountability and efficiency in public service delivery.
Yet despite its position as one of the world’s largest digital economies, Indonesia remains locked in a cycle of fragmented progress and policy resets that undermine its long-term digital transformation goals.
Indonesia’s journey toward digital governance is marked by promising but short-lived innovations.
Over the past decade, several ministries and regional governments have launched initiatives that highlight the transformative potential of digital tools in the public sector.
The Finance Ministry, for instance, introduced the State Treasury and Budget System or SPAN, a real-time digital platform that modernised how the government monitors and manages its fiscal operations.
This innovation significantly improved budget transparency and inter-agency coordination, becoming a reference point for other developing economies.
Similarly, the Health Ministry made strides with platforms such as PeduliLindungi and SatuSehat, which demonstrated how health data could be integrated and mobilised to respond to public needs more efficiently.
At the regional level, cities like Surabaya have developed smart governance initiatives such as e-Musrenbang for participatory development planning and a citywide command centre for real-time emergency response.
The Lapor! citizen complaint platform, once supported by the president’s office, is another example of a technology-driven mechanism that enhanced public participation.
Unfortunately, many of these examples demonstrate a lack of institutionalisation.
These initiatives, though initially celebrated, have often been discontinued or rebranded, and as leadership changes have occurred, they have been sidelined in favour of new programmes introduced under different administrations.
This pattern reflects a deeper challenge in Indonesia’s public administration: An endemic culture of discontinuity.
Digital innovations are treated more as personal legacies rather than national assets. Thus, they are highly vulnerable to political turnover and shifting agendas.
This lack of sustainability is further exacerbated by entrenched institutional silos, where ministries and agencies are reluctant to collaborate or share data, and by leadership egos that often prioritise short-term visibility over long-term continuity. These issues are not new, however, they persist and stall in progress.
The result is a state of digital flux where platforms are constantly launched, only to fade away without scaling, evaluation or meaningful impact. This tendency to “start over” has tangible consequences for Indonesia’s digital maturity.
In the United Nations E-Government Development Index, Indonesia’s ranking improved from 107th in 2018 to 64th last year. While this progress is commendable, it still places Indonesia behind regional peers such as Malaysia (53rd) and Thailand (55th).
In the International Institute for Management Development’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, Indonesia rose from 56th in 2020 to 43rd last year, still behind Malaysia (36th) and Thailand (37th). However, Indonesia continues to trail far behind Singapore, which consistently ranks among the top three globally.
Despite being the largest digital economy in South-East Asia, Indonesia has not yet managed to translate its digital infrastructure and user base into a cohesive, high-performing digital governance ecosystem.
This disconnect between digital potential and governance performance reflects institutional inertia.
Despite having more than 212 million Internet users, strong mobile infrastructure and an energetic digital-native population, public services have been inconsistent in their digital offerings.
Citizens must often navigate a patchwork of platforms with each developed independently by different agencies, resulting in duplications, inefficiencies and digital fatigue.
Rather than simplifying access, digital platforms can sometimes further complicate the experience of citizens.
Moreover, digital transformation is often treated narrowly as a matter of technological adoption rather than a broader reimagining of how public institutions operate.
As a result, Indonesia’s public sector remains trapped in what can be called a “perpetual pilot phase”; a stage of innovation that lacks the governance mechanisms required for maturity and impact.
To break this cycle, Indonesia must make structural changes.
First, it must embed digital transformation in its national development planning. Incorporating digital governance goals into the National Medium-Term Development Plan with measurable performance indicators and strong accountability frameworks is critical.
These plans should emphasise continuity, ensuring that progress is not discarded as a result of political transition.
Second, the government should consider institutionalising the role of chief digital officers (CDOs) within ministries and local governments.
CDOs would serve as stewards of digital strategy, ensuring alignment across sectors and sustainability across election cycles.
Third is the promotion of data interoperability and standardisation across agencies. Many inefficiencies in service delivery stem from isolated systems that do not communicate with one another.
Through common standards and shared infrastructure, digital services can be made not only more efficient but also more resilient.
Regulatory frameworks must incentivise this shift, discourage duplication and mandate collaboration.
However, digital transformation is not only about institutions, it is about people.
At its core, it is a cultural shift in how the government interacts with citizens.
It must be driven by principles of inclusivity, responsiveness and accountability.
Digital tools should serve citizens and not the other way around. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
Vishnu Juwono is an associate professor in public governance at the Faculty of Administrative Science, University of Indonesia. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
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