Disband Korpri and Dharma Wanita
The Indonesian Civil Service Corps (Korpri) and the Association of Wives of Civil Servants (Dharma Wanita) would be better disbanded, as the following reasons show:
1. They were set up by the New Order regime to confirm the Functional Group's (Golkar's) supremacy by means of restricting the freedom of association of civil servants and laborers. These organizations do not give any benefit; on the contrary they are just a burden to their members, because they collect levies in the form of salary deductions or donations.
2. They lead to inefficiency because their presence only means a waste of money, energy and time. As for Dharma Wanita, considering that the chairperson is also the wife of the leader of the institution concerned, the couple are just like a king and queen. Perhaps this situation was intentionally created by the New Order regime in an attempt to establish a feudalistic and authoritarian system. Because of this likeness to a king and queen, Dharma Wanita has often been the source of irregularities. Promotion in position and decisions on projects, for example, can be discussed and decided by the husband and his wife alone.
This system has therefore allowed corruption, collusion and nepotism to thrive, owing especially to the unconditional authority inherent in the system. The queen, the wife of the head of a state body, has often misused the state's facilities and behaved as if she were more powerful than her husband. Some violations have included the use of office cars and the mixing up of official and private bank accounts. Once there was quite a stir when an entourage of Dharma Wanita members from the communications ministry unit went on holiday to Thailand.
Today, all institutions established by the New Order for the sole purpose of stifling democracy and ensuring the sustainability of Golkar's absolute majority must be disbanded. Otherwise they will continue to use facilities for the pro-status quo forces to block the advance of the reform-minded forces.
Besides, as Golkar is considered the source of all problems faced by the nation, Korpri and Dharma Wanita should also be construed in the same manner. All of them will only hinder the progress of the reform movement.
HARYO MATARAM
Jakarta