Complaints on govt services increase
Complaints on govt services increase
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday that public
complaints about government services were rising faster than
those about the private sector.
While opening a three-day seminar on bureaucratic reform at
the State Palace, the President said that low wages were partly
to blame for the inefficient and ineffective bureaucracy.
But Soeharto said it was unfair to compare the public sector
with the private sector without considering the different income
levels of staff.
"Civil servants are paid relatively less than workers in
private companies," he said.
Soeharto said the government's limited budget was preventing
it drastically improving bureaucrats' incomes.
Indonesia has six million civil servants, 3.5 million of them
work for the bureaucracy.
Last April, the government raised the monthly salaries of
upper-echelon civil servants by up to 34.4 percent and lower
grade civil servants by up to 73 percent.
"It's difficult to solve these problems (low wages), as people
who are becoming more prosperous are demanding better services
from civil servants whose living conditions are poorer than
theirs," Soeharto said.
He said that whatever challenges were facing it, the
bureaucracy should be able to accommodate growing public demands
or it would hinder development.
"The bureaucracy plays a pivotal role as the motor of
development. It can encourage public ideas and creativity to grow
by simplifying procedures and helping the public develop,"
Soeharto said.
He said reforms were needed to enable the bureaucracy to
promote public participation in development programs.
"But we do not need to have a massive restructuring because
radical changes are not always fruitful," he said.
The seminar is being held by the Ministry of Administrative
Reforms, the National Institute of Administration, the National
Archives Agency and the Institute of State Personnel
Administration.
Results of the seminar will be submitted to the People's
Consultative Assembly which will hold its general session next
March.
The first day of the seminar saw Loekman Soetrisno of Gadjah
Mada University criticize the bureaucracy for its political links
with Golkar.
"The political allegiance has caused the bureaucracy to suffer
from insecurity of redundancy and to fall prey to mass violence,"
he said.
Some government offices were attacked in the riots during the
May election campaign. The riots have forced government officials
in some provinces to change the number plates on their official
cars.
Loekman said that the bureaucracy had not yet cured its most
chronic diseases of corruption and collusion because of its
members' economic insecurity. He said many officials committed
violations, such as corruption, to ensure that they could live
comfortable in retirement.
He suggested that the bureaucracy separate itself from Golkar
and keep away from its past mission of helping the dominant party
win general elections.
"For the sake of our successful development, we must in future
set up a red and white (nationalist) bureaucracy, rather than
yellow, green or red ones," he said.
Red and white, the colors of the Indonesian flag, have
commonly been used to identify nationalism. (06/amd)