According to Sriro (2006), Indonesia’s public policy authority in law, resides with the
position of President assisted directly by Coordinating Ministries which are themselves
assisted by State Ministries in the planning and formulation of policy across portfolios. It
is the State Ministries that act as the bureaucratic conduit through which government
departments and non-government agencies operationalise national public policy,
including that of plant biosecurity. Whilst the various governance levels of national,
regional, provincial, municipal and regency legislative bodies have a role in the policy
process this is primarily as law makers of regulations or interpreters of existing national
policy for application within their respective jurisdictions.

Notwithstanding this governance and policy construct, Indonesia as a fledgling
democracy of ten years has demonstrated sensitivities which require community
exchange with Executive government to mutually respond to localized public policy need
and/or priority. This is demonstrable in special autonomy status being granted to Papua in
2004 and Aceh in 2006 and a partial regulatory amendment to Jakarta’s existing
autonomy status to account for new development in the region.

But how do community information exchanges occur, and how do community views
become recognised in the Indonesian pubic policy process? The overarching question
for this paper is: What constitutes an effective policy? The assumption underlying this
question is that for policy to be effective, community must have an input into policy
development, implementation and evaluation. This assumption has been developed
through preliminary research conducted in a Balinese community during 2007. It is the
latter research that is reported on in this paper.