Bureaucracy blighted by bias and collusion: Ryaas Rasyid

JAKARTA (JP): As long as biased and partisan practices prevail in the bureaucracy, no professional administrators can be expected to emerge in Indonesia, a prominent scholar believes.

Ryaas Rasyid, the rector of the state-run Institute of Public Administration, defined professional bureaucrats as those committed to serving the public. He said they were unlikely to dominate the administration because unethical practices were still so widespread.

In a seminar held by the Indonesian Association for Social Sciences in Medan, North Sumatra last week, the newly inaugurated professor also said nepotism dominated recruitment to the bureaucracy.

"Nepotism, along with bribery, is behind the bureaucracy's failure to recruit only the best men and women. Such a practice does not allow room for fair competition and a thorough examination of prospective employees."

To make matter worse, Ryaas said, the recruitment process puts too much emphasis on qualifications and not enough on job experience. It is also strange, he said, that the recruitment process involved a controversial security screening and not a psychological examination.

"Screening satisfies political not scientific criteria. An employee who passes and is subsequently (labeled as being) loyal to the state ideology is not necessarily going to achieve more," he said.

In Indonesia, would-be civil servants must not have direct or indirect links to the now-banned Indonesian Communist Party. It is common for civil service applicants to be rejected service if it is found they have relatives who joined the party or its affiliated organizations.

When it comes to the evaluation of employees' performance, nepotism also prevails and overrides any merit system, according to Ryaas.

"The nepotistic practices discourage civil servants from striving to improve their job performance. Therefore professionalism cannot find fertile soil on which to grow.

"Suspicion and aspersions which always follow an employee's promotion show that people believe that nepotism or proximity to superiors plays a pivotal role in career development."

Ethics

Ryaas said the Indonesian bureaucracy had also failed to cultivate professionalism because it did not provide new recruits with a code of conduct.

"New recruits simply have to attend a course on the state ideology, Pancasila. No ethics or administration guidelines are given to them," he said.

The absence of a common stance has caused bureaucrats from different departments to prioritize their own programs and ignore activities requiring inter-ministry coordination, he said.

"They are reminded of coordination when they are about to assume middle managerial posts, where disorder is getting worse."

Low salaries is another problem the bureaucracy is facing in its search for professionalism.

Ryaas suggested the government should be courageous and either "dare to trim down the bureaucracy, or it must be brave enough to increase bureaucrats' salaries".

He said poor remuneration had degraded the image of the bureaucracy; many employees sought extra jobs or abused their position to supplement their income.

"Our bureaucracy is too fat. There are many redundant posts, which in turn costs the government a lot of wasted money."

The lowest ranking bureaucracy employee earns Rp 80,000 (US$33.33) a month, well below the minimum wage for laborers in Jakarta of Rp 140,000 a month. (amd)