‘Helpful’ or ‘weird’? Vice President Gibran’s new complaint desk gets Indonesians’ support, but some are sceptical

JAKARTA: Mr Gibran Rakabuming Raka’s newly launched complaint desk in Central Jakarta has garnered support from its first customers and the country’s netizens, though some have raised questions over its relevance to the recently inaugurated vice president’s role.
Local media reported that Mr Gibran himself visited the physical complaint desk at the vice presidential palace on Tuesday (Nov 12) to inspect its operations.
The “Lapor Mas Wapres” or Report to the Vice President complaint desk, aimed at addressing concerns from over 270 million Indonesian citizens, received 55 face-to-face complaints on its first day of operations on Monday, from people across various regions in Indonesia – as far as Surabaya, Makassar and Manado in North Sulawesi, according to local media.
The initiative was announced by Mr Gibran, 37, who is also the son of former president Joko Widodo, on his personal Instagram account @gibran_rakabuming on Sunday.
“From tomorrow onwards, we will accept complaints from the Indonesian public. Ladies and gentlemen, you can come directly to the vice presidential palace in Central Jakarta,” Mr Gibran wrote on the social media platform, with the post garnering over 601,000 likes and more than 35,400 comments as of Tuesday.
According to local media platform Kompas, some expressed disappointment as they did not get a queue number and had to return back the next day, while others were pleased with the hospitable service from the officials at the complaint desk.
One of them is Mr Fathoni Rahman, a motorcycle taxi driver, who submitted a complaint regarding the inaccessibility of a hospital where he is currently seeking treatment.
“Very friendly, very open and very helpful, I am very thankful,” Mr Fathoni told local media platform Kompas, commenting on the service at the desk, though he gave no elaboration on what action has been taken so far to address his complaint.
Some of the other complaints lodged at the desk included concerns about unequal social assistance schemes, difficulties in seeking justice and health problems suffered by family members, Kompas reported.
As of Monday afternoon, 70 people had queued and registered to lodge reports, but some were told to return the following day. 
The complaint desk has a daily limit of 50 to 60  face-to-face complaints, according to local media platform Tempo, which also reported that one of the committee members had stopped the public from queuing even before 1pm although it closes at 2pm. 
Meanwhile, netizens expressed support for the new initiative.
“Good job Mr Vice President,” Instagram user @inengahsuarna commented on Mr Gibran’s post on Nov 11. 
“(The (vice presidential) office now accepts complaints, usually they do not listen to the people’s aspirations,” read another comment from netizen @ekosumarno212 on Tuesday, with over 927 likes. 
“Anak abah (referring to Mr Anies Baswedan’s supporters) are banned from lodging complaints to our vice president,” commented netizen @rikhaaaziz, in what is likely a jibe at one of the losing candidates in the February presidential election. 
The Instagram comment has garnered over 9,100 likes as of Tuesday. 
Some however have expressed scepticism on its feasibility and raised questions over whether handling public complaints fits Mr Gibran’s role as vice president. 
“Why don’t you optimise the tools or institutions below you to handle the complaints? It seems that handling complaints from the whole of Indonesia with a centralised complaint system by the vice president is not optimal,” a netizen with the username @human_wellbeing commented on Nov 11.  
“This is a weird programme, the role of the vice president is treated like a mayor, why is the vice president taking care of this?” another netizen @rrafiyy questioned. 
“Is there really a law that says that the vice president’s job is to deal with public complaints?” netizen @MardaniJgMw posted on X, with the post receiving over 4,100 reposts and 13,000 likes.
Besides a physical complaint desk, Mr Gibran also provided a WhatsApp number for the public to file reports on various issues on his official Instagram account.
Both the online and physical complaint desks are open every Monday to Friday, from 8am to 2pm.
Although no details have been revealed on how Mr Gibran will be addressing the various complaints as vice president, the Deputy for Administration at the Vice Presidential Secretariat – Sapto Harjono – told local media that Mr Gibran would personally check the complaints on a daily basis, through a recapitulation report prepared by his secretariat, The Jakarta Post reported. 
According to Mr Sapto, the face-to-face complaint process begins with security checks at the entrance of the Vice Presidential palace, with the applicants receiving a queue number before proceeding to the registration desk to exchange their identity cards for a guest pass.
Once they have been registered, they will then be directed to the complaint area, which has 10 service desks. Each desk is staffed with two to three officers from the Vice Presidential Secretariat, decked out in light blue vests.
Mr Sapto also told local media that public complaints submitted will be processed within 14 working days, as the complaints need to be analysed before being submitted to the relevant ministries or institutions or even the local regional government.
“We have 14 days for the analysis process before it is followed up by ministries, institutions and regional governments,” Mr Sapto said, as quoted by Kompas. 
He added that the public can also monitor the progress of their complaints via WhatsApp or through the official website, by logging in with the registration number they obtained when first submitting the complaint. 
“This is still in its early stages so there may be some shortcomings. However, this is a directive from the vice president just days after he was inaugurated and we are striving to prepare everything as well as possible,” he added, as quoted by the Jakarta Globe.
According to the Jakarta Post, this is not the first time the vice president has set up a complaint desk in public office. He also implemented a similar approach during his tenure as mayor of Surakarta, Central Java from 2021 to 2024. His father, former president Joko Widodo also set up a similar complaint desk during his time as Jakarta governor from 2012 to 2014.