Shaping Tomorrow’s Policy: UPH Experts Advise Municipal, Regional, and National Authorities
TANGERANG, 2025 — Through meaningful collaborations between faculties and various levels of the Indonesian government, Universitas Pelita Harapan has been actively engaging with government agencies to provide opinions and expert advice in various areas.
Locally, UPH Faculty of Law lecturers continuously support the Police Department and Legal Courts by assigning expert witnesses in many legal cases. In the year 2024/2025, several public cases include:
- Dr Fajar Sugianto, S.H., M.H., as a law expert witness in the Indonesian Constitutional Rights Advocacy Foundation (Yakin) v. General Elections Commission (KPU) case – a dispute over the public’s right to access the source code of Sirekap, the election results recapitulation system, and the KPU’s obligation to provide access to this information.
- Prof. Dr Jamin Ginting as Criminal Expert Witness in PIK 2 v. Charlie Chandra – A criminal case involving alleged document forgery in connection with a land certificate transfer.
Regionally, various faculties in UPH have also worked with provincial governments in projects to improve its policies and programmes, such as:
- Forum group discussion to discuss the threats of cybersecurity for Indonesia’s defences, which was attended by the Regional Development Planning Agencies (Bappeda), strategic partners of Korem 052/Wijayakrama, and the Head of the Bureau of Legal Affairs and Public Communications at the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN). In this event, Prof. Aleksius Jemadu, Ph.D., professor representative of International Relations Department UPH, suggested the involvement of religious, cultural and civil society leaders in peacemaking initiatives to ensure effective communication of such policies.
- The collaboration between researchers and lecturers in the Faculty of Economics and Business and the regional government of Jakarta Barat developed a Real Demand Survey for the Flat Development Project in Bojong Indah, where a regional policy brief for the project was created. The policy brief was regarding the recommendation replacing the outdated 2020 limits with new price and income caps for government-supported apartments (not landed houses, which Jakarta land prices put out of reach): maximum selling prices of Rp14.53 million/m² for MBR and Rp19.64 million/m² for MBT (Rp16.10 and Rp21.77 million including VAT); maximum monthly incomes of Rp16.5 million for MBR and Rp22 million for MBT (Rp18.5 and Rp24.5 million if based on VAT-inclusive prices); government support through down payment, interest rate and loan term (more limited for MBT); and enactment through a Governor Regulation and Decree under Article 22 of the DKJ Law. The project implementation is still ongoing a few years ahead.
Nationally, UPH academics have received various opportunities to be involved in providing expert advice to the national government:
- UPH Leaders alongside representatives from the Faculty of Economics and Business, Dr Gracia Shinta Ugut, and the Faculty of Science and Technology, Prof. Dr Ir Wiryanto Dewobroto, M.T., conducted a partnership followed by a focus group discussion with the Expertise Agency of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR-RI) that discussed policy recommendations regarding the evaluation of infrastructural development conducted in the Presidency of Joko Widodo that can be implemented and improved during the Presidency of Prabowo Subianto. Through the collaboration, UPH also obtained firsthand access to evaluating policies and assisting in developing government data integration.
- Prof. Agus Budianto, as the Supreme Court Ad Hoc Human Rights Judge Candidate, highlighted in the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) that human rights enforcement faces various obstacles due to the lack of follow-up measures from relevant authorities that hinder accountability for human rights violations.
