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