Reforming the State Secretariat<\/p>\n
By Ati Nurbaiti<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): It's lonely at the top, and even more so when
\none is no longer there, as former presidents will testify. The
\nones nearest to the top, identified by their \"RI 1\" presidential
\nnumber plates, are also prone to bouts of post-power syndrome,
\nincluding those from the State Secretariat.<\/p>\n
At the lucrative office, almost each employee used to have
\n\"his own field to cultivate,\" a reporter covering the office
\nsaid. He recounted the changes in attitudes among those who came
\nand went, along with the three most recent presidents.<\/p>\n
Trimming the overstaffed office and dealing with those
\nremaining will be the major hurdle for the inexperienced
\nnewcomers, lecturer in politics Mahrus Irsyam told The Jakarta
\nPost last week.<\/p>\n
Public administration expert Warsito Utomo noted, \"Only those
\nat the top are new. Their staff, however, will find it hard to
\nbreak old habits.\"<\/p>\n
Bondan Gunawan, secretary of government supervision and state
\nsecretary, told legislators last month that his staff would be
\nreduced by some 1,400. Mahrus said there were pensioners whose
\nservice terms had been extended up to five times.<\/p>\n
Bondan said the President's secretaries were consulting with
\ntheir respective staff on where they could best be placed
\n\"according to their skills.\" Legislators, who summoned the
\nsecretaries on Feb. 17 to explain the President's confusing
\npolicies and statements, reminded them of the hurt caused to
\ncivil servants through the drastic closure of two ministries days
\nafter President Abdurrahman Wahid entered office.<\/p>\n
Throughout the years, the \"greedy\" State Secretariat, first
\ntargeted non-ministry institutions, then the handling of bills,
\nthen state assets like those under the state-run Kemayoran
\nDevelopment and Control Board -- which led to chronic land
\nproblems -- and finally the purchase of military equipment,
\nMahrus wrote earlier in Kompas.<\/p>\n
To support these functions the staff at the office were
\nawarded complete facilities and higher incentives compared with
\nregular civil servants, Mahrus said, \"in return for loyalty to
\nSoeharto\".<\/p>\n
The bills imposed on the rubber stamp legislative bodies,
\nlargely drawn up at the State Secretariat, were one cause of the
\nrepublic's \"destruction,\" professor of constitutional law Ismail
\nSuny told Tempo magazine.<\/p>\n
The office should no longer be the \"superministry\" it once
\nwas, both new secretaries and observers say. Its vast powers will
\nhave to be drastically cut so that the State Secretariat returns
\nto its function of only handling matters \"around the palace,\"
\nMahrus, who teaches at the University of Indonesia, said.<\/p>\n
Revamping the state secretariat is equal to starting
\nbureaucratic reforms from the heart, \"and the new state secretary
\nseems to have grasped this,\" Mahrus told the Post.<\/p>\n
President Abdurrahman was quoted as saying that the State
\nSecretariat should no longer be mixed up with presidential
\nfunctions, \"or it will be a state within a state\".<\/p>\n
Bondan has been given six months to revamp the State
\nSecretariat, which ideally should be staffed by career
\nbureaucrats, legislators were told at the hearing on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n
Legislators questioned whether the office would still have the
\nsame powers as before, which even included issuing permits for
\naspiring overseas students and arranging the promotions of
\nmiddle-level civil servants. For those in far flung provinces,
\nincluding teachers, this meant a long wait for more recognition
\nand better pay.<\/p>\n
\"There were so many presidential decrees drafted by the State
\nSecretariat which took over the authority of the House of
\nRepresentatives,\" legislator Aisyah Amini said at the hearing.<\/p>\n
Bills, such as the one on consumers' rights, could get stuck
\nfor more than 10 years at the State Secretariat on unclear
\ngrounds. \"There should be a clear limit on the length of time
\nbills and decrees are processed at the State Secretariat,\"
\nWarsito said, to avoid past allegations of the office \"buying\"
\nand \"selling\" such regulations.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the controversy over the state security bill,
\nformer state secretary Moerdiono said last year he had withheld
\nthe draft bill on state security for 10 years, given its
\nsensitivity.<\/p>\n
\"What right did he have to do that?\" Ismail said. The State
\nSecretariat should only deliver the bill to the House of
\nRepresentatives for discussion, he added. The delays encountered
\nby bills at the State Secretariat has greatly contributed to the
\ncountry's weak bill drafting process, he added.<\/p>\n
With such power, the state secretariat became a source of
\ncorruption. \"The practices of levies still continues,\" said
\nlegislator Sophan Sophiaan, who said his party, the Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party of Struggle, still had to pay a certain levy for
\na function involving the State Secretariat even now its
\nchairwoman was Vice President.<\/p>\n
The military's dual function also extended to the State
\nSecretariat. Ismail, who was once jailed for a year for
\ncriticizing Soeharto, said such abuse of power became worse after
\ncivilian ministers \"were replaced by people like (retired
\nofficers) Sudharmono and Moerdiono.\"<\/p>\n
Bills drafted at the State Secretariat became \"authoritarian,\"
\nIsmail said. The concept of having more members of the People's
\nConsultative Assembly appointed than those elected was one
\nexample, he added.<\/p>\n
The State Secretariat, said political observer Marsilam
\nSimanjuntak and now the Cabinet secretary, should be the part of
\nthe president's office that maintains the state's consistency.<\/p>\n
While others assisting the president were political appointees
\nlike himself, who would leave when the president chose them to or
\nwhen a new one was elected, \"the state secretary should be a
\ncareer bureaucrat to guarantee consistency of the state whoever
\nthe president is,\" Marsilam told legislators.<\/p>\n
Whether the State Secretariat would again become a
\n\"superministry\", legislator Sutradara Ginting said, would greatly
\ndepend on the President. The issue now is how this office can
\nbecome a transparent public management institution that no longer
\ninterfered with ministries, he said.<\/p>\n
\"It would then be clear whether the State Secretariat is an
\nadministration concept or a tool of power,\" Sutradara added.<\/p>\n
The changes to the office, Marsilam added, were meant to
\ndelegate part of the State Secretariat's powers \"horizontally\",
\nto other ministries, and \"vertically\", to governors and other
\nregional administrators.<\/p>\n
The State Secretariat functions to mediate with the president
\nas head of state, while the Cabinet secretary assists the
\npresident as the country's chief executive officer, he said.<\/p>\n
\"So don't ask us for accountability; we are the product of the
\nPresident's policies,\" Marsilam said. The new post of secretary
\nof government supervision, he added, would be to monitor the
\nimplementation of the decrees.<\/p>\n
\"We're beginning to see a division of labor now,\" Mahrus said.<\/p>\n
\"The State Secretariat must no longer be the center of
\npolitical intrigue,\" Mahrus said. He once wrote that the office
\nused to be the hub of Soeharto's household matters, and \"the
\nmeeting place of the business interests of Soeharto's children
\nand grandchildren, of officials' offspring, of the interests of
\nvarious ministries and of government and private interests.\"<\/p>\n
An example of the latter, a reporter said, was the so-called
\n\"Shaking Hands Inc.\" or \"P.T. Salaman\": the syndicate within the
\nsecretariat that arranged for the president to shake hands with
\nhundreds of guests and have their photographs taken, for around
\nRp 75,000 each.<\/p>\n
\"They were quite cross when Soeharto, in recent years, refused
\nto shake so many hands,\" the source said. It isn't quite clear
\nwhether Soeharto was ever aware of this practice.<\/p>\n
Mahrus suggests that the President's current secretaries work
\nout among themselves who their coordinator should be.<\/p>\n
Failure to reform this body, he says, will lead to the
\n\"tragic\" drama of champions of democracy entering the bureaucracy
\nand getting trapped into old mistakes. Newcomers Marsilam and
\nBondan were fellow activists with the President in the Democratic
\nForum, which was critical of the government.<\/p>",
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