Page 192 - BUKU STRENGTHENING THE INDONESIAN PARLIAMENTARY DIPLOMACY FADLI ZON

Parliaments, Citizen Trust,

and Openness

At the outset, allow me to express my sincere appreciation to the House of Democracy
Partnership for organizing The 2 Global Legislative Openness Conference. I am very pleased
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and honored to be here today. And I would like to thank for inviting me to this conference and
giving me the opportunity to talk about Parliaments, Citizen Trust, and Openness.

Let me to discuss about two specific issues that I am sure we are really concerned. First, is
about the phenomenon of low level public trust in government institution, particularly in
parliament. And I will follow it with the issue of nexus between the paradox of democracy and
the parliament’s openness. Second, allow me to share some experiences on ways to promote
open and transparent parliament, that have been made by the House of Representatives of The
Republic of Indonesia.

The low level of public trust in government institutions in general, and in parliament in
particular, has been a worldwide problems in most democratic countries. To overcome this
condition, many parliaments have introduced the reform agenda to repair and even to improve
the connection with citizen. This way is adopted by parliaments with an expectation to regain
the lost public trust.

However, it is often found that the reforms in many countries have had little effect. Here I
notice that the ineffectiveness of reform agenda is strongly related with the root of reasons. As
have been suggested by various studies, there are three level explanations to trace the roots of
low level public trust in government institutions, including in parliament.

Selected Speeches of the Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia I 179