Bureaucratic reform overdue

Bureaucratic reform overdue

When news reached us that trillions of rupiah in social safety net funds -- obtained through the charity of others -- were somehow misappropriated, we were scandalized. When individuals regarded as lawbreakers by the public were absolved of charges against them by our courts of justice, we could only shake our heads in disbelief. When people who had just had a brush with the law were given positions in prestigious places, we could only mutter in protest. And even as cases of corruption and collusion continue to pile up at the Attorney General's Office with no rulings in sight, we only grumble.

What, actually, has gone wrong? Has our reform movement lost its nerve and its appeal to the public? It appears that a bottleneck exists in the fact that our bureaucracy has been left untouched by our reform drive. Our bureaucracy, which should be acting as a driving force in the campaign, has instead become an obstacle. Observe, for example, how corruption and collusion continue to prevail on a full -- not to say enlarged -- scale.

Where is the bureaucracy's promised swift and easy service? Where is the promised simplifying of procedures in bureaucratic matters? All those obstacles have their origins in a bureaucracy that continues to seek material gain from anything it does in relation to the public.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta