DigiTimes #6 June
THE STUDY OF ONLINE PETITION IN INDONESIA: THE CASE OF CHANGE.ORG
Room BC 201- 202 Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Universitas Gadjah Mada Jalan Sosio Yustisia 1, Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta (0274) 563362, Ext. 116 | cfds.ď€ sipol@ugm.ac.id
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RESEARCHERS AND CONTRIBUTORS gettyimages
= Researchers Dedy Permadi Viyasa Rahyaputra Chiara Anindya Nitya Saputri Rizal Anang Dwi Santoso Iradat Wirid Editor Habibah Hermanadi Viyasa Rahyaputra Cover Design and Layout Anaq Duanaiko Umar Abdul Aziz Mohammad Diaz Praditya
June 2017
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= BACKGROUND The online petition research was conducted due to the rising popularity of the platform worldwide. Specifically, in Indonesia, people have been more active in public participation and becoming more aware of current issues. The range of the issues proposed for future changes varied, and they were aimed at the various 'responsible' institution. Center for Digital Society saw the need of understanding the power of digital society in sharing, spreading, and advocating the issues and gaining supports from a large number of people to achieve various objectives.
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This proposition could be seen from Change.org, one of the most acknowledged petition websites which are being used for advocacy platform by people. The research aims to see how people utilize the site to obtain real changes within the society and the e f fe ct i v e n e s s o f t h i s w e b s i te i n representing these issues.
RESEARCH QUESTION How is the mapping of online petition in change.org from February 2016-February 2017?
METHODOLOGY Data Collection Method The data in this study was colected from all of the petitions submitted Change.org from February 2016 to February 2017. Data collection began on February 21, 2017 and was conducted by five enumerators. Each of these petitions was grouped according to certain criteria agreed previously. 1,521 pieces of petitions
Data Analysis Method The data was identified into several groups based on: 1.Types of the petitioned issue 2.Number of supporters 3.Petitions targets 4.Petitions' date of submission The petitions which had been grouped were aggregated and mapped accordingly.
Issue Categorization 1. Politics ·Politics ·Policy ·Defense and security ·Justice and equality ·Patriotism 2. User Complaints 3. Economy 4. Leisure and sports 5. Environment ·Environmental issues ·Animal protection and conservation 6. Social ·Education ·Transportation and infrastructure ·Gender and sexuality ·Women and children ·Diversity ·Health ·Culture and tradition ·Freedom of expression ·Cybersecurity 7. Others
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Distribution of petition and issue in general According to the data, political issues caught most of the attention of internet users. In the last one year, political issues were covered in at least 628 petitions, varying from political phenomena to policy-related issues, but these issues are still on the political domain. Second to that , people are paying much attention towards social issues, with 396 petitions representing them, which
covered issues such as; health, education, transportation, and more. The least petitioned issue was on the domain of economy with only 28 petitions in the last one year. By these varieties, it was clear that more people are more involved in national political issues which caught their interest and attention.
Distribution of Petitions – General Issues Politics
628 petitions
Social Environment User Complaints
115 petitions 102 petitions
Others
127 petitions
Leisure & Sports
125 petitions
Economy
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396 petitions
28 petitions
Total: 1521 petitions
Distribution of Petitions – Specific Issues Number of petitions
350 300 250 200 318
150 100 115
50 47 0
64 27
127
125
126
110
93
68 36
28
26
9
14
11
10
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Most Popular Issues On a more specific note, the most popular issue fell upon justice and equality, with 318 petitions out of the total of 628 political petitions. The number was followed by policyrelated petitions with 126 petitions and political petitions with 110 petitions. The least popular issues which were accounted during the timeline were gender and sexuality
with only 9 petitions, followed by patriotism with 10 petitions, and internet security with 11 petitions. Through this, we can see the projection of how relevant these issues were in representing the reality of the society, the kind of demands which are pertinent to the people.
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Targeted Groups These petitions were created to voice the current collective demands of the people. Then, the creators of these petitions must be able to know who are the targeted groups that could further their cause to solve the issues submitted to the website. In the chart bellow, most of the petitions were aimed at the governmental institution. A significant amount of requests were directed towards the government for the sake of policy changes, governmental inter vention, and demands for a more reactive government. The other targeted
groups such as the private sectors, civil society, education institution, and the media, amounted to less than half of the number of issues brought to the government, even when they were accumulated.
Distribution of Petitions – Targeted Groups Private Sector 5%
Media 2%
Educational Institution 2%
Civil Society 8%
Miscellaneous 9%
Government 74%
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Distribution of Petitions – Specific Targets Specifically, the distributions of petitions were aimed to these stakeholders: SPECIFIC TARGETS
Total
Ministry/Minister
536
President
482
Legislative Body
187
Police
186
Mayor/Regent
113
Governor
106
Private Sector
82
Local Government
57
Educational institutions
30
Media
29
Prosecutor/Attorney
25
Rector
24
KPK
22
KPI
21
KPAI
19
MUI
18
Ombudsman
7
Others
1832
Total
3776
Notes: · There are about 1832 petitions targeted to a 'Others' target group category, which equals to 55,8% of the total petition targets. · A petition could be at more than one petition targets (specific people or institutions).
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NUMBER OF PETI 153 153 143 143
144 144
142 142
99 99 71
12 months 11 months 10 months 9 months 8 months ago ago ago ago ago
7 months ago
The chart shows how fluctuating the distribution
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.
TIONS (MONTHLY) 179 157 136 122 99 99 76
6 months 5 months ago ago
4 months 3 months ago ago
2 months ago
1 month ago
n of the petitions is in accordance to the ongoing
CHANGE.ORG ‘WINNING’PETITITIONS
· There were 4 petitions that 'won' (followed-up by the targeted institutions/people with concrete actions/changes) within the research period from the total of 1521 submitted petitions. This means the success rate for a petition to 'win' during the given time is as significant as 0.26% . 8
THE RANGE OF PETITITION SUPPORTERS We can see through all of the gathered petitions that there were only 7 petitions that could gain more than 50000 to 100000 supports and a total of 952 petitions that reached 0 to 100 supports. This reality portrayed how active digital activism could be; yet at
the same time these participation were less than significant in making tangible changes. This is a depiction of digital noise that could be seen from the chart below:
Range of Submitted Petitions and Number of Supporters Number of Supporters Number of Submitted Petitions
952
0-100
356
101-1000
153
1001-10000 10001-50000
46
50001-100000 7 100001-... 7
Distribution of Petition for each month Number of supporters
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
12 months 11 months 10 months 9 months 8 months 7 months ago ago ago ago ago ago
9
6 months ago
5 months ago
4 months ago
3 months ago
2 months ago
a month ago
PETITIONS WITH MORE THAN 10000 SUPPORTERS AND THE ISSUES Out of the 60 petitions that fall upon the criteria, again, politics is an issue which the people are concerned about, as it covered 36.60% from the total of all petitions. In contrary to the standing, economy became the least popular issue that gained less than 10000 supporters. Within the political scope, justice and equality is the most highlighted issues within the society.
Entertainment and Economy 2% Sports 3% Environment 5%
User Complaints 3%
Social 27%
Politics 60%
PETITIONS WITH MORE THAN 10000 SUPPORTERS AND THE TARGETED GROUPS Similar with the earlier data, government institution is the prominent target for these petitions. The data showed the growing enthusiasm for civil society to be more involved with the government. 35%
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POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PETITITIONS The two specific issues are the dominant issues with approximately 1024 submitted petitions which accounted for 67, 32% of the total petitions.
POLITICAL PETITITIONS As political petition is the most popular kind of petition, we tracked the activity and involvement of people within this particular issue. Throughout the months, the number of petitions which were submitted to the website ranged from 29 petitions as the lowest in September and 74 petitions in October 2016. On average, there are approximately 52,3 petitions per month focusing on political issues. These issues were directed towards the government with 518 petitions, which amounted to 82% of the total incoming petitions. The four specific issues which were launched include justice and equality, patriotism, policy related issues, and security.
Distribution of Political 80
Number of political petitions
71
69
70
59
60
50 50
46 40 30 20
20
10 0 12 months ago
11
11 months ago
10 months 9 months ago ago
8 months ago
7 months ago
Political Petitions: Specific Issues Politics
110
Policy
126
Patriotism
10
Justice and Equality
318
Defense and Security
64 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Number of petitions
Petitions for Each Month 74 66 59 54
31
29
6 months ago
5 months ago
4 months ago
3 months ago
2 months ago
1 month ago
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12
SOCIAL PETITITIONS
Distribution of Social 60
Number of social petitions
50
42 40
30
36
43 37
27
20
17 0
12 months 11 months 10 months 9 months 8 months 7 mon ago ago ago ago ago ago
The social petition is the second most popular kind of petition with larger range of societal issues that caught the attention of the people. The most petitions were noticed to be under education matters with 116 petitions, followed by transportation and infrastructure issues with 93 petitions. On average, there are 33 petitions submitted monthly throughout the year and peaked on 51 submitted petitions on October 2016. Most petitions were directed towards the government with 324 petitions or 81% from the total incoming petitions.
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l Petitions for each month
nths
51
34
33 28
24
24
6 months 5 months 4 months 3 months 2 months 1 month ago ago ago ago ago ago
Social Petitions: Specific Issues Culture and Heritage Diversity Education Freedom of Expression Gender and Sexuality Health Internet Safety Religion Transportation and Infrastructure Women and Children
27 36 115 26 9 14 11 31 93 34 14
CONCLUSION: Online Petitions in the Democratic Context There is the inevitable gap between the concept of digital democracy and the practice of digital democracy in Indonesia. The gap can be caused due to the low level of digital literacy in the context of understanding the use of the online petition. Despite the cultivation of democratic participation, the development of democratic culture is still lacking. The result from this research is a reflection of condition of digital democracy in Indonesia, where noises still dominate over the voicses. Ideally, the democratic culture is an intertwining activity between the government parliament, the street parliament in the form of social activism, and digital Parliament in the form of online discussion and petitions. Change.org shed a glimpse of the dynamics on digital activism and how there are rooms for improvement and development for the purpose of cultivating better digital democratic framework in this platform, especially in Indonesia.
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ABOUT CFDS Center for Digital Society (CfDS) is the research center established by the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. The institution is created under the concern over the contemporary dynamics of socio-political condition of the world that is accentuated by the impeccable influence of information technology. The phenomenon triggers the new patterns and complexities in the society, and thus requires new approaches in managing such complexities. CfDS pledged to delve more on the study of contemporary digital society, including related issues surrounding the topic; such as the issues of smart city and urban development. The emphasis is then put on the utilization of technology to shape the society in becoming digitalized, as well as to bring solvency to social issues. Vision Solving Social Problem and Accelerating Prosperity through Indonesia Digital Society Activities 1. Research and Development 2. Dissemination and Publication 3. Education and Policy Advocacy Research Scopes 1. Digital Commerce 2. Digital Citizenship 3. Digital Lifestyle