Heaptalk, Jakarta – Vice Minister for Public Housing and Settlements (PKP), Fahri Hamzah, emphasized the urgent need for digital transformation in housing and settlement systems across Indonesia. Speaking before dozens of regional heads during the Technical Coordination Meeting on Rural Housing at the Ministry of Home Affairs office in Jakarta on Monday (04/29), Fahri underscored that all housing-related systems must be fully digital in line with President Prabowo’s directive for a unified national data platform.
In his opening remarks, Fahri also took a jab at the long-standing practice of political lobbying by regional leaders to push specific policies through personal connections, calling it a major cause of uneven development.
“We aim to design a digital system. We no longer want regional heads lining up in Jakarta to lobby – this is a bad tradition. I spent 15 years in the DPR and 20 years in Senayan. I understand and am very critical of this,” said Fahri Hamzah.
Drawing from his experience as a member of parliament, the Vice Minister recounted how some regional leaders used to base themselves in Jakarta merely to lobby budget officials. “I’m sorry to say, but there used to be regents or governors whose ‘offices’ were not in their own regions, but at the Budget Directorate General in Lapangan Banteng or at the House Budget Committee in Senayan. This must stop,” he added.
Moving forward, Fahri instructed that all regional housing issues must be input into a centralized digital system, which will prioritize and resolve cases based on urgency – not political influence.
“This will only work if the queueing variables in the system inform us of the urgency, not by influencing political figures to change policy,” Fahri Hamzah concluded.
