Indah Setiawati, Jakarta – In 2004, the Home Ministry announced to the public that Indonesia would give each citizen a Single Identity Number (SIN) for use in various administrative systems records and documents.
The SIN system was aimed at organizing citizens' data better, making it more difficult for people to have multiple ID cards (KTP), and to pare down civil registry bureaucracy.
The then home minister, Hari Sabarno, estimated it would take more than five years to change the current demographic administration system because most regencies were still struggling with power supplies and telephone lines.
Five years have passed, but no significant changes to the civil registry have become apparent and preparations for the SIN system in many regions remain unfinished.
The implementation has taken a long time because the legal instrument to regulate it was only passed in 2006, Home Ministry spokesman Saut Situmorang said. "The law was just issued in 2006," he told The Jakarta Post recently.
Saut was referring to Law No. 23/2006 on Population Administration that requires the government to establish a SIN system throughout the country before the end of 2011. However, the presidential regulation needed to execute the system was only issued this June.
The last general elections exemplified why Indonesia needed to reform its civil registry system. Many citizens were found to have at least two ID cards, while many others could not get voting cards.
And just recently Jakarta felt the weight of the problem when police revealed that at least one suspected terrorist involved in the JW Marriott bombing had checked into his room using a fake KTP.
The SIN system will provide each citizen with a unique number to be used for all personal documents, including identity cards, passports, driving licenses, insurance policies, land certificates, property ownership documents and tax cards.
Saut said other factors that had slowed the process down were a lack of IT infrastructure, population and civil registry agencies as well as human resources in a number of regencies.
"Every regency is different in terms of its infrastructure preparedness, especially in eastern Indonesia. I hope all regencies will be ready by 2011," he said, adding that the government target had ignored regions' preparedness.
Despite the target, an agreement with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), to promote the application of the Population Administration Information System (SIAK) in all regencies, was only made this June.
According to Presidential Regulation No. 26/2009, the government will provide regencies with required equipment and training to implement the SIN system only for a set time. The regencies would then become responsible for the maintenance, procurement of equipment, and training.
According to the government's plan, the SIN system will use an online network connecting the database at the Home Ministry with the databases of Population and Civil Registry Agencies in 33 provinces and 471 regencies and municipalities across Indonesia.
The ministry is expecting to test a pilot SIN system project in several appointed cities (Denpasar, Yogyakarta, Padang and Makassar) Saut said. "We hope to adopt the best model for use nationwide," he said.
While several regions including Jakarta have actively developed SIAK, Saut said he hoped other regions would cooperate with the ministry to ensure that their systems were compatible with the national network.
Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) head Azas Tigor Nainggolan said the application of the SIN system required a strong commitment from the government and regency heads.
In the development of the SIN system at a national level, problems may emerge in the coordination of government and related parties including police and banks, which would use SIN data, Azas said.
At regency levels, the complicated bureaucracy in lower institutions (such as district and subdistrict administrations) may become obstacles in the implementation of the SIN system, he said. "I suggest strict supervision of officers in charge of the management of administrative documents," Azas said.