Courage in crisis

Courage in crisis

Given the limited funds at the government's disposal, President Megawati's decision to raise the routine budget is worth complimenting.

Salaries of the military and police personnel and pensioners will go up by 10 percent as from January 1, 2003 while teachers will enjoy a 50 percent increase in their allowances starting October 1, 2002.

The routine budget has also been increased because of the government's plan to recruit more civil servants (particularly teachers, medical personnel, soldiers and police personnel), preparations for the 2004 General Election, natural disaster management and reserve funds in case of additional budgetary expenditure.

However, the government needs to show further courage in removing civil servants who have shown poor performance, especially those asking for bribes, an act prompted, perhaps, by their low salaries.

Still, to achieve greater efficiency and improve services, the government must show further courage and take up China as its model.

Formerly, the Chinese bureaucracy was very corrupt but after the government replaced the division heads upwards with fresh blood not yet contaminated by corruption, China has been relatively free of corruption. Unauthorized fees, which jack up investment and production costs, have virtually disappeared. Hence the very low prices of Chinese products.

So, the government must have the courage to restructure the civil service as a whole. -- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta

Public telephones vandalized

Some 1,600 out of 28,296 public telephones across Jakarta have been damaged, an executive of Telkom regional division II, Thomik Dharmawan, has said.

Although many residents of Jakarta and its satellite towns now own fixed lines and mobile telephones, public telephones are still needed by those who cannot afford private telephones.

Public telephones are helpful as many are located in hospitals, police stations, government offices and on the roadsides. In an emergency, you can just go to a public telephone booth to find the telephone numbers of important government agencies.

Indonesians, particularly those in major cities, have a penchant for tampering with public facilities. Many street lights are damaged or lost, bus stops are full of graffiti, park benches are damaged, for example.

Therefore, all Jakarta residents and all government offices must consider it their responsibility to look after public facilities. Anybody damaging them must be punished at the scene of the incident as a lesson for other offenders. --- Warta Kota, Jakarta