Public Virtue is a democracy and civic activism organization that promotes and plays an active role in the creation of a prosperous, just, developed, and civilized Indonesia.
Founded in 2012, Public Virtue is a social change institution that engages in the development of religious discourse, alternative democracy, human rights, and citizenship with the aim of:
- Ensuring the role of citizens for the promotion of a just society and the virtues of public life; and
- Ensuring the upholding of state responsibility in the promotion of prosperity and prosperity for all Indonesian people
Initially, Public Virtue focused on promoting democracy while leveraging internet-based platforms and engaging young activists or ‘digital natives.’ We focus on the development of democratic thinking, human rights and its compatibility with religious thought, as well as the dissemination of alternative democratic ideas. The strategies implemented including knowledge sharing, production and dissemination, civic education, and evidence-based advocacy.
Public Virtue’s team includes political sociologist, researchers, as well as religious scholar-activists committed to building a democratic society in Indonesia – providing Public Virtue with the legitimacy and the expertise to challenge the authority of those who seek to limit recourse to the public sphere on religious grounds.
During 2012-2017, Public Virtue actively promoted democratic discourse through books, discussion forums and experiments on technology platforms such as metapolitik.com and aspiraksikita.org.
Some published books include:
- Dinamo: Digital Nation Movement – Usman Hamid
- Designing New Directions for Democracy, A. E Priyono and Usman Hamid (editors)
- Social Media: Civil Movement Tools: A.E. Priyono, Usman Hamid, et al.
- Demokrasi di Indonesia: Dari Stagnasi ke Regresi?, Thomas P. Power dan Eve Warburton (editors) — translation edition of “Democracy in Indonesia: from Stagnation to Regression?” published by ISEAS)
Currently, Public Virtue is developing three programs working with religious leaders and grassroots religious institutions such as Islamic boarding school or pesantren. The first program focuses on religion and tolerance, the second on Islamic jurisprudence and the environment, and the third on the security and protection for pro-democracy and social justice leaders. This year, Public Virtue has implemented a number of programs in cooperation with one of the leading platforms called kitabisa.com on social assistance to workers affected by Covid-19 (May 2020).