Faculty Chair, Golkar Institute
Public Policy
Mulya Amri has always wanted to do work that impacts people’s lives – by helping to transform cities into more prosperous, inclusive and sustainable places. Trained in architecture, he held senior urban and regional development roles, then switched gears to do his doctorate in public policy at LKYSPP. He now leads the capacity-building arm of Golkar, one of Indonesia’s largest and oldest political parties. His rationale for moving from architecture to urban planning to public policy and to training Indonesia’s young and future politicians (not just from Golkar) at the Golkar Institute in Jakarta: “I realised then – to make things more impactful, I had to influence politicians. That’s who bureaucrats listen to.”
I get the chance to develop (young politicians’) training curriculum, select the teachers or speakers, and decide on the grading and graduation system. I hope these young politicians find a way to be good elected politicians and play a key role in deciding the future of their respective cities and, ultimately, Indonesia. I had worked so long on building the knowledge and capacity of civil society actors, but without the presence of good politicians, my impact would be limited. Ultimately, many important public policies are decided by politicians. Good politicians, good government officials and good civil society actors must work hand-in-hand in enabling reform.
Mulya Amri, who completed his doctorate in public policy at LKYSPP in 2016, is now the Faculty Chair at Golkar Institute, where he develops the curriculum and oversees the training programmes, among other roles.
Good politicians, good government officials and good civil society actors must work hand-in-hand in enabling reform.
How much of an impact do you think you’ve made on the community?
I am far from achieving what I envision for Indonesia’s cities. I am happy to see progress happen every day. I conduct research, write op-eds, talk in panels or in videos regularly, and I see people responding to the ideas that we put forward. On a good day, sometimes these ideas are adopted as either a new policy or an update in an existing policy. But there is so much more that needs to be done, and they need to be done sooner than later.
Before LKYSPP, I was primarily a technical person, working on urban planning, architecture and community development. But public policy allowed me to see the multiple actors shaping our world and how they interact in deciding policies that ultimately impact everybody’s lives. Most importantly, I learnt about how governments or public administration work and the critical role of politics in all this. It was as if I could now see the invisible network that connected everything.