Critical policy analysis of the law no 6 / 2018:

reviewing Indonesia strategic war against drug

BY:
M.Retno Daru Dewi, AMk, S.Psi, M.Si; Ida Widianingsih, S.IP,M.A,PhD;
Dr.Drs.H.Heru Nurasa,M.A; Riswanda, PhD

1. UNPAD, FISIP Pascasarjana/ BNN, Hp. 081319080110; Diklat, Mayjend HR Edi Sukma Street 21 Lido Bogor/
doc.retno@gmail.com/margaretha17004@ unpad.ac.id
2. UNPAD, FISIP Pascasarjana; Hp.081214558454; ida.widianingsih@unpad.ac.id
3. UNPAD, FISIP Pascasarjana; Hp. 08161675034; hnurasa@yahoo
4. UNPAD, FISIP, Center for the Study of Decentralization and Participatory Development, Dago Street 25 Bandung/;
Hp. 081324540208; ccdpd.fisip.unpad.ac.id

Drug abuse is an alarming issue in Indonesia. The widespread scale of the issue calls for
proper policy solutions. Indonesian Narcotics Board (2015) noted quite significant increase in
the prevalence of drug addicts from 2.2% (4.2 million people) to 2.85% (5.1-5.8 million people)
of the country’s population. One of the government policy responds is by the development
rehabilitation service for drug addicts, partnering 340 government institutions and 132
community organisations. However, the service could provide only 18,000 addicts yearly,
whilst the numbers of addicts keep increasing along with the drug trafficking. The issue is
systemic when it comes to its damaging impacts of the abused substances socially and
economically other than just public health alerts. The Indonesian President Instruction no 6/
2018 reflects the emergency of the issue. The strategic policy insists National Action Plan for
Prevention and Eradication of Drug Abuse, taking in to account all related stakeholders
ranging from government to non government parties. The law keys in multi perpectives, namely
social-politics, economic, cultural and defence. The perspectives are expected to promote
partnership accross different ministries and departments joining-up community organisations.
This research paper explores the development of a synergistic partnership model that might fit
in the National Action Plan. The study applies critical systemic thinking (Flood 2008, Midgley
2005, Ulrich 2004, McIntyre-Mills Mills 2006,2013) in reviewing the issue, combining policy
research with Critical Participatory Action Research (Riswanda 2015, Riswanda et.al
2016a,b) and case study of West Java as windows of data. The study analyse critically the
implementation of the law no 6/ 2018 in terms of networking ministries, community institutions,
aims developing ‘a synergistic partnership model across different service providers and
community based actions (Widianingsih and Riswanda 2018). The research contributes to
intellectual discourse on drug policy making frameworks in exploring ‘roots of existing roots
problems’ (Riswanda 2018). The data collections are mixed combining results of narrative
interviews, and sequential Focus Group Discussions, narrating lived experiences of service
providers, professionals and those living with addictions.

Keywords : Partnership; Policy ; drug; participatory