Civil servants have yet to provide public services

Civil servants have yet to provide public services

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Muslim Idul Fitri holidays are officially over, however,
the holiday mood continued at most government offices in several
major cities through Wednesday, one day after public services
should have officially returned to normal.

Government offices in the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura were
open for only about two hours, before some of the employees went
home at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

"I came to the office at 9 a.m. and left at 11 a.m. as
everybody went home," said Simon, an employee at the General
Administration Office of the gubernatorial building.

The Jayapura regent's office was also still quiet.

"Civil servants here are mostly lazy. Idul Fitri holidays have
just finished, but Christmas and the New Year are nearing, they
must be reluctant to go to work," a Jayapura resident, who asked
for anonymity, told The Jakarta Post.

In Medan, North Sumatra, most civil servants at City Hall
offices were still absent on Wednesday as well.

However, provincial spokesman Sakhyan Asmara claimed that
services to the public were normal, "despite the fact that the
number of employees was smaller than usual."

"Many of them are still celebrating Idul Fitri with their
relatives. It is understandable," Sakhyan said.

The Medan mayoralty and its legislative council office also
looked empty, with only a small number of employees and
legislators present on Wednesday.

"I am disappointed, the official I want to see is absent," a
resident, Zulkifli Fahmi, said.

A similar scene was also reported in Yogyakarta. The
government's activities were sluggish on Wednesday as the
employees left their offices much earlier than they should have.

The situation at the gubernatorial office on Jl. Malioboro was
rather busy --albeit not much work was taking place -- on
Wednesday morning when hundreds of civil servants and the public
were allowed to meet Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X at the
Kepatihan Hall to directly extend Idul Fitri greetings. The
complex was empty and quiet soon after the event ended at 11 a.m.

West Java City Hall on Jl. Wastukancana in Bandung, saw most
of its hundreds of offices closed. The only offices which started
to operate on Tuesday were the Information and Communications
Office and the Law and Order Office.

"They all should have been back to work. The Idul Fitri
atmosphere may still loom," said Cece Subarna one of the few
people who did show up.

He predicted that public services would resume to normal next
week. "The bosses are usually tolerant and will not punish the
tardy employees," said Cece.

Governor R. Nuriana's office in Gedung Sate, Jl. Diponegoro
was also quiet.

In Surabaya, East Java, all government offices started to
operate on Tuesday. But on Wednesday business was still very
sluggish.

A security officer at the mayoralty office said that many
employees were still busy with their internal events relating to
the holidays.

"In the next two or three days business will return to normal,
I believe," said the security officer, who refused to be
identified.

In the Central Java town of Purwokerto, the business at the
Banyumas regent's office had yet to return to normal.

"Maybe only two-thirds of the employees are in today. There
were about half yesterday," the regency spokesman, Didi
Rudwiyanto said on Wednesday.

"You can see that the public service offices (Samsat) were
empty before noon. All the employees had left," Didi said. "The
most terrible thing is that none of the regency legislators have
returned to work so far."

A very different situation was witnessed in Denpasar, in the
Hindu-dominated island of Bali.

The Idul Fitri holidays were celebrated only by a small
minority of Muslims in Denpasar and other places on the island.

Working activities in most government and private
offices were therefore as normal as any other day on Wednesday.

Ketut Sumarta, an official at Bank Indonesia's Bali office,
said that all employees are already active. "We got only two days
off during the Idul Fitri days. There is no excuse for us to be
away from the office after that."