Independence of NSOs, Statistics Office Asia-Pacific

Jousairi Hasbullah:
In the Asia-Pacific Region there are still many statistical office which are not fucntionally independent. They are suffering from vulnerability in relation to political pressure and interest group influence.

This situation exists due to the lack of political support, not robust statistical law/regulation. Some, their organization structure under or as a subordinate of such line ministry. There are some statistical offices give report to minister of planning or even: minister of finance. This situation is not only describing a weak institution of statistics, but also this is a tragedy of the lifeblood of statistics: independent, impartiality, objectivity, and autonomy.

Statistics-data statistics-should be of high quality: objective. It means should be produce through scientific and independent process, and disseminate, communicate and interprete objectively and free from any intervention.

There is no other choices but all countries in Asia-pacific should be strengthened and ensure they are fucntionally autonomous by boosting them as well as all government in the region to have robust law on statistics which guarantee that all NSOs only give responsibility to the highest leaders of respective country.
Jousairi Hasbullah
Hotel greenhost. Prawirotaman.brontokusuman.Yogyakarta 19 june 2018.