Bagus Budi Tama Saragih, Jakarta – More than a decade after the fall of Soeharto, Indonesia's fledgling democracy is yet to fully benefit its people, an expert says.

"The essence of democracy is to improve people's welfare. Is this the reality of democracy in Indonesia?" said Partnership's cluster chief for public service governance, Agung Djojosoekarto on Friday.

The civil society organization, through its program called LEAD Indonesia (Leveraging and Educating Accountable Democracy), which was launched in Jakarta on Friday, aims to reform the country's political system in an effort to establish what it calls "substantive democracy".

Agung said the government's inclination to recentralize the nation's political system indicated Indonesia's "unhealthy democracy". "The grand design of regional autonomy governance is yet to be completely achieved."

The Dutch government has donated US$16.5 million to finance the program. The memorandum of understanding for the donation was signed by Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi and Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia Nikolaos van Dam, on Friday.

The Partnership said it had also obtained $500,000 from the Danish government and US$9 million from other donors to fund the massive program.

Agung said the program would establish 12 Sekolah Demokrasi (democracy schools) in five provinces to support the program. Partnership will also train 150 facilitators to work in the schools.

The democracy schools will be open for young activists, journalists, college students and teachers as a place to learn substantive democracy in interactive sessions.

Agung said the program also aimed to help promote bureaucratic reform across the country at all levels, "from the central government to the village level".

The Partnership will cooperate with the National Development Planning Ministry as well as local administrations to upgrade the capacity of civil servants, particularly in the regions.

"We have a special program to reform the governance system at the village level, called the VIGOR or the village governance reform," Agung said.

One of the key issues in the poor quality of civil servants in Indonesia is the lack of integrity that leads to corruption, he said. The Corruption Eradication Commission recently revealed that officials in the regions had received gratuities, kickbacks and even bribes for decades.

The director of law and human rights at the National Development Planning Ministry, Diani Sadiawati, said the ministry would take part in the LEAD Indonesia program to improve the integrity of civil servants at regional levels.

"The key to public integrity is transparency and accountability. The National Development Planning Ministry has implemented a transparent budgeting system that can be imitated by local administrations," she said