Ombudsman Establishes Bilateral Relations Of Foreigners' Attention

The Ombudsman provided information regarding bilateral cooperation with Thailand and the Philippines in Badung, Bali, Friday (11/8/2023). ANTARA/Ni Putu Putri Muliantari

The Ombudsman took advantage of the 2023 Southeast Asian Ombudsman Forum (SEAOF) Senior Official Meeting (SOM) meeting to establish bilateral relations with Thailand and the Philippines. One of the collaborations carried out is to pay attention to foreign nationals (WNA).

This was conveyed by Ombudsman member Johanes Widijantoro when asked about the complaint service efforts from tourists or foreigners who are in each SEAOF member country.

"Yes, if there is (cooperation related to the foreigner's complaint service), we make it an agenda because there is the same interest of each ombudsman representing the interests of his citizens," he said in Badung, Bali, as reported by ANTARA, Friday, August 11.

Johanes explained that with this bilateral relationship, if Thai foreigners and the Philippines experience problems in Indonesia, they can be handled and receive complaint services, and vice versa.

"We also want governance in handling foreign nationals with standards, if we need informal communication between us, there will be already so there is no need for cases to emerge and go viral," he said.

One of the things that makes this important is the emergence of violating tourist behaviors such as on the Island of the Gods Bali, while the Ombudsman cannot arbitrarily discriminate because tourists are part of the population who are entitled to protection.

"But to those who are not in an orderly manner, because they do not comply with the rules, the treatment is the same principle of non-discrimination," said Johanes.

Although it has not yet been officially signed a memorandum of understanding between the Ombudsman and the Thai and Philippine Ombudsman, Johanes said that his party had received many complaints from foreigners.

Generally in Bali, complaints services accessed by foreigners are dominated by reports about residence permits.

To continue to provide optimal service, the Indonesian Ombudsman provides open access for anyone including foreigners to enjoy complaint services and convey aspirations in the SP4N Lapor portal and application.

Head of the Main Assistant for Public Complaints of the Ombudsman Patnuaji A Indrarto added that digital services for this complaint are in collaboration with KemenPAN RB, the Presidential Staff Office, the Ministry of Communication and Information, and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Later every complaint will be directed directly to the relevant agencies, and if more than 60 days are not resolved, the complaint will go to the Ombudsman.

"Indeed, this is still homework because only a few agencies can complete more than 90 percent, but we hope that the 2024 roadmap target can be above 80 percent at least, this includes tourists even when they don't want their names to be included," he said.