An example of moral accountability
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The room is simply furnished with a couple of desks and a cabinet but no computer. A framed poster on the wall reads "World Health Day: Safe Motherhood. Pregnancy is special -- Let's make it safe". This is the office of the chairman of the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI).
"Now, I can spend more time here. I just visited another office in Kebon Kacang, Central Jakarta," Prijono Tjiptoherijanto, the former secretary to the office of the vice president, told The Jakarta Post at his South Jakarta office.
Prijono resigned following the issuance of a controversial internal memo from his office criticizing the performance of the House of Representatives.
The memo, dated Dec. 27, strongly criticized the hearings between the House and the government.
It stated the hearings were often filled with disproportionate statements aimed at discrediting the government and that legislators frequently played down the importance of answers given by government officials to questions they had asked.
The memo was addressed to Cabinet members and heads of government agencies and institutions.
Although he said the memo was written after a briefing by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, the vice president denied any wrongdoing.
The memo, intended for Cabinet ministers and heads of state institutions, was leaked to the public.
"I think, we should not blow the case out of proportion. The case is closed as soon as the vice president provides an explanation," said Prijono, who has also been a professor of economy with the University of Indonesia (UI) since 1998.
Other Indonesian officials in similar circumstances have refused to resign, saying that resignation does not solve problems.
However, Prijono argued that resignation would at least show that officials are morally responsible for their actions.
His colleagues, he said, did not regret his resignation from the bureaucracy as it meant he would have more time for them.
Prijono acknowledged that this was probably true.
Now, he can attend the board meetings of the UI and social welfare insurance company PT Jamsostek, of which he is a board member.
Born in Malang, East Java, on April 3, 1948, Prijono was encouraged by his parents as a child to become a teacher. His father began his career as an elementary school teacher in Malang but was promoted to a position in the office of the education ministry in Jakarta.
"Becoming a teacher means sharing the best you have with others. We always respect older people," said Prijono, the second of three brothers in his family.
Prijono began his career as a lecturer at the University of Indonesia in 1971. He continued his studies at the University of the Philippines in 1977, and received his doctorate from the University of Hawaii in the United States in 1981.
At his university, Prijono was mandated in 1981 to 1984 to become deputy director of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (LPEM).
From 1984 to 1988, he was head of the UI demography institute.
His career in the bureaucracy started in 1988 when he took a position as a specialist with the ministry of trade. At that time, the senior minister was Arifin Siregar and the junior minister, Soedradjad Djiwandono.
He was then appointed deputy chairman of the State Administration Institute (LAN). In 1993, Prijono was appointed assistant to the minister of population. He served as head of the Civil Servants State Agency (BKN) for two years, from April 24, 2000 through April 17, 2002.
Starting on April 17, 2002, Prijono took up the position as secretary to the office of the vice president. At that time, the vice president was Hamzah Haz.
He held the position until Jan. 19, 2005, when he resigned following the leakage of the internal memo.
Oddly enough, Prijono was able to survive during the administration of Soeharto's New Order government, but failed under the latest administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
The positions he held during the previous governments were all administrative, he said, while his job as secretary to the vice presidential office was highly politicized.
Prijono is married to Yumiko Mizuno, a Japanese woman he met as a student in the Philippines. The couple have two children, Harumi Aisah Prijono and Agus Natsuki Mizuno.
The couple are a rare breed among Indonesian state officials in that they live modestly. When they returned to Indonesia in 1981 after finishing their studies in Hawaii, they had only US$50 in cash, Yumiko's masters degree and Prijono's doctorate.
Now, they live in the housing complex for lecturers at the University of Indonesia in Ciputat, Tangerang.