Scientific Publications and Public Policy
In fact, public policy has so far been more influenced by political considerations and is more reactive to the political dynamics that occur in society.
Didie SW
Statistics on scientific publications issued by the Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) show an interesting development: In 2020, Indonesia was one of the largest producers of scientific publications in Asia with 50,145 publications a year.
The statistics make Indonesia the fifth-largest producer of scientific publications, after China in the first position with 788,289 publications, India following with 217,721 publications, Japan with 147,341 publications and South Korea with 98,796 publications.
The Indonesian ranking has attracted the attention of many observers of scientific publications who want to maintain the quality of the publications of Indonesian writers, as well as expand their benefits for the development of evidence-based policy formulation (EBPF).
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Satryo S. Brodjonegoro in an article titled "Benefits of Scientific Publications" (Kompas, 30/9/2021) voiced the concern that the nearly 50,000 scientific publications published in 2020 would not bring much benefit to science in the country because the journals that published the studies were still too expensive for lecturers, let alone students. It turns out that the same situation also occurs in neighboring countries.
Meanwhile, Eunike Sri Tyas Suci in her article “Reorientation of Indonesian Academic Publications” (Kompas, 29/9/2021) concluded that scientific publications written by lecturers only benefited the lecturers themselves because publications enabled them to get additional allowances.
The two authors are of the opinion that the benefits of scientific publications in the formulation of public policies in the several countries that they observed are still low, although many people in Indonesia expect EBPF to be used to assess public policies proposed by the government. However, my experience in participating in preparing public policy in the transitional government during the Reform Era showed that there had not been much progress in the preparation of public policies, either by the legislature or executive.
Although recently there have been demands to use EBPF, quite a number of public policy proposals are still based on the political interests of the policy makers and short-term political interests to attract interest groups.
In fact, public policy has so far been more influenced by political considerations and is more reactive to the political dynamics that occur in society. Although recently there have been demands to use EBPF, quite a number of public policy proposals are still based on the political interests of the policy makers and short-term political interests to attract interest groups.
Contribution to public policy
Asit Biswas and Julian Kirchner's article titled "Prof, no one is reading you" in Singapore’s The Straits Times concluded that scientific publications were only read by about 10 people and at most 20 percent of the journal's readers. Likewise, Satryo estimates that the influence of scientific publications in the preparation of public policy in Asian countries is still very low or almost non-existent because the formulation of public policy is more influenced by the interests of political party leaders and the president's political promises rather than the results of the EBPF.
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Laboratory at the University of Indonesia's Biotechnology Research Center on the UI Depok campus, Friday (6/4/2018). This biotechnology laboratory was established in collaboration with UI with Daewoong Pharmaceutical, South Korea.
In the midst of public expectations that the public policy should be based more on EBPF, namely the use of empirical facts and the results of objective analysis in the entire policy formulation cycle, not much progress have been made.
This EBPF method is expected to improve the quality of public policy because policy objectives will be more reachable and the determination of policy alternatives will be more complete so that no important aspects are forgotten in solving policy problems.
In short, such policy formulation is expected to produce public policies in accordance with the wishes of the people so that there is no rejection. However, in daily practice, the formulation of public policies in a number of countries remains the same and is more of a political agreement between the leaders of the ruling party or according to the wishes of strategic groups.
One concrete example is the EBPF on climate change mitigation goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 41 percent by 2050, as mentioned by the chairman of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) during a talk show held by Antara on 7 Oct. EBP may develop faster in our country if the performance assessment of lecturers also includes the contribution of their scientific publications to the preparation of public policies set by the government. Unfortunately, popular scientific publications published in print and social media have not become a source of EBPF by public policy makers.
Didie SW
As the result, public policies issued by the executive or legislature are more influenced by the political views of the political parties or policy initiators, political interests of the stakeholders or the interests of political oligarchs.
The power of words
“Don't underestimate the power of words! The real power is their meaning and interpretation, especially to communicate effectively your policy recommendations!” That's the advice given by Professor WN Dunn, the founder of the postgraduate program in policy studies at the University of Pittsburgh, the United States, when I said good bye to him and left for Indonesia in mid-1979. I again remembered the advice when I waited more than three years for the passage of the state civil apparatus (ASN) bill, which was formulated by the Independent State Reform Team that assisted Vice President Boediono in early January 2014, by the House of Representatives. The bill was then sent to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) for implementation.
After a long wait for the President's signature, my colleague Prof. Prijono – after visiting the State Secretariat one day – sent a WhatsApp message to me that read, "Fyan, an official from the State Secretariat said the ASN bill would be thrown into the sea". I immediately wrote an article published in Kompas (13/5/2013) titled "Godot and Bureaucratic Reform".
Remembering Professor Dunn's advice, I closed the article with the following sentence, "If the President’s decision regarding the ASN bill has the spirit of ‘nothing to be done’ like the absence of Godot in the play by Samuel Becket, the long wait for the ASN Law will be remembered as the legacy of the President, who will end his second term in 2019.”
That is evidence of "the power of words" in the ratification of public policies.
It seemed that the article was read by President SBY, and after three limited Cabinet meetings chaired by the president, Law No. 5/2014 on the ASN was finally signed on 14 Sept., 2014. That is evidence of "the power of words" in the ratification of public policies.
In his book, which is recognized as the most frequently reprinted textbook on public policy analysis, the author explains that policy analysis is a profession whose aim is to develop, assess and communicate knowledge “about” and “in” the process of public policy formulation.
The two words, in and about, distinguish policy analysis from political science, administrative science, legal science and economics. Policy analysis aims to develop practical and useful knowledge to improve the quality of policy formulation and to solve policy problems in a systematic manner free from political considerations, while political science, administrative science, government, law and economics are sciences that examine the phenomenon of policy formulation to be developed into knowledge in their disciplines.
Representatives of graduates receive diplomas during the graduation ceremony for the Graduate Program of Gadjah Mada University at the UGM Hall, Yogyakarta, Wednesday (21/10/2020).
After policy analysis developed into an independent field of study, many study reports were written in the form of policy briefs with the hope that the results of the assessment would influence the solution to the policy problem. Unfortunately, due to the involvement of policy makers, political parties and many stakeholders, or policy mediators who wanted to determine certain policy directions, the analyses produced by researchers of certain scientific disciplines are usually stymied and cannot influence the achievement of the desired policy goals.
After the policy problem is formulated properly, with the support of convincing data or evidence, it is necessary to analyze the future condition that would show the achievement of the policy objectives and to use several relevant assessment criteria to select the most optimal and effective alternatives taken from a number of policy options to be recommended to policy formulators. The results of this analysis must be communicated properly, and it must be ensured that they are accepted and used in the formulation of policies set by the government.
Applying EBPF throughout the public policy cycle can increase the chances of policy analysis being accepted and reduce the number of controversial policy proposals.
Sofian Effendi is the deputy chairman of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) and a policy analysis professor at Gadjah Mada University (UGM).
(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi).
