Open Society and its Enemies

The title of this article is actually the title of a book by Karl Popper (1950) and translated by Uzair Fauzan (2002). Popper, an Austrian philosopher, is regarded as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century in the field of philosophy of science. One of his ideas related to democracy is the concept ofopen society. "Open Society and Its Enemies" is not only the title of the book, but also the title of a chapter. In this chapter, Popper does not give a clear description of the enemies he is referring to. He mostly analyzes and criticizes Plato's thoughts (in addition to Hegel and Marx in other chapters) on true happiness, class, and justice.

However, Popper's enemies are exclusivity (in the context of tribal society) and anti-democracy. In line with Popper, for 22 years the Tifa Foundation has agreed that inclusiveness and upholding democratic values are inherent in the realization of openness in Indonesia. The derivatives of both which have been Tifa's guidelines in running programs and organizations are the principles of transparency and accountability.

The Big Indonesian Dictionary defines accountability as being responsible; a state of being held accountable. Meanwhile, transparency can be interpreted as a condition where there is no hidden intention and there is solid information availability. If examined through the Tifa program for the past 2 years, the HEAL Program implemented in East Java and West Nusa Tenggara and the Review Program run in Yogyakarta are examples of Tifa's efforts to realize transparency and accountability from community groups to government units from the village to the central level.

"We support Tifa's efforts in advocating for the fulfillment of the rights of vulnerable groups through the HEAL program. This is one of our ways to continue to maximize the fulfillment of social protection for the community more effectively and transparently," said the Kadinsos of Pasuruan Regency, October 2022.

Organizational Transparency and Accountability
Since its inception, the principles of transparency and accountability have been the breath of this organization that was established in December 2000. This is an institutional Tifa principle. Organizational governance is developed by strengtheningchecks and balances and regular supervision in both the program and financial sections. Even since Shita Laksmi joined at the end of 2019, this principle has been strengthened institutionally.

Shita Laksmi, Executive Director of the Tifa Foundation from November 2019-December 2022 is an individual who has been working in transparency and accountability since 2011. Tifa's work processes both internally and externally are made more open and participatory. In addition to encouraging more structured implementation of transparency and accountability, he also introduced one of Tifa's new approaches, namely constructive engagement with multiple parties including the Indonesian government. Many of Tifa's programs since 2020 have been carried out in collaboration with the Indonesian government and reported publicly through a series of Tifa communication products. This collaboration is considered important because the problems faced are increasingly complex and need strategic cooperation with the government. Ultimately, all of this is intended to ensure the realization of an open society.

In addition, in carrying out its role as a grant manager, the mechanism between Tifa as a fund manager and the recipient civil society organization is carried out through an open Call for Proposal selection. This has been running with more than 700 partners spread throughout Indonesia. The process of selecting organizations that qualify is also carried out through a series of selections involving external expert reviewers and independent assessments from the Foundation's management board.

In addition to involving external reviewers in the selection, Tifa also involves external auditors in every audit process of the institution's financial statements - including in the grant mechanism - which is carried out annually.

"In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Yayasan Tifa as of this period and its financial performance and its cash flow for the year then ended, in accordance with the Indonesian Financial Accounting Standard" (Extracted and processed from the Auditor's Report 2022).

This unqualified opinion is always obtained by the Tifa Foundation every year and is a motivator for the institution to continue to maintain and even continue to be better from time to time. This auditor's report is in conjunction with the institutional annual report which is also produced and disseminated to the public every year.

The annual report that we upload every year through the tifafoundation.id page is one of Tifa's concrete outputs in carrying out what is meant by organizational transparency and accountability to donors, government, partner organizations, especially to the community.

If for Popper the enemy of an open society is exclusivity and anti-democracy, for Tifa, the enemy of an open society is failing to live up to what Tifa stands for: the principles of transparency and accountability.

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