Expert calls for people's input in policy making

JAKARTA (JP): The government should side with the people and show this by including them in all stages of policy making, an expert said over the weekend.

The Public Administration Institute's rector, Ryaas Rasyid, told a discussion on the draft of the 1998-2003 Broad Guidelines of State Policies drawn up by the ruling Golkar, that the government needed to be more sensitive to the public's feelings and aspirations.

Last year's student demonstrations in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, against a planned hike of public transport fares was an example of a lack of sensitivity in policy making, he said Saturday.

"The demonstrations, which turned into riots, wouldn't have happened had the mayoralty asked for people's view of the plan beforehand," he said.

Three students died in the riots at the Hasanuddin University campus. They reportedly drowned in the nearby Pampang River while trying to evade security officers.

Ryaas said the government should tighten the supervision of government officials and punish them if they are found guilty of misconduct, he said.

He said better recruitment policies were needed so government offices took only the best candidates.

"The challenge is how to absorb universities' best students as government employees," he said. "At present, the best students prefer to work in the private sector."

A researcher at the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Ismid Hadad, accused government officials of being arrogant.

"They ignore the people who put them in office," he said. "This happens because government officials are not held accountable for their actions before the House of Representatives, the body which is supposed to control and supervise them".

Experts and officials who addressed yesterday's discussion included the state minister of administrative reforms, T.B. Silalahi, who said recently it was impossible to eliminate corruption, and that private sectors were sometimes more corrupt than government agencies.

He said Saturday it was hard to evaluate officials' performances because Indonesia had not yet established evaluation criteria.

The Armed Forces chief of sociopolitical affairs, Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, told the discussion that development should benefit the people.

"The development program should not sacrifice the people," he said.

He said the key to successful development was people's participation.

During an earlier session, a member of Golkar's Board of Patrons, Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, said the 1998-2003 State Guidelines would be more concise even though new concepts had been added.

"The more modern a country, the thinner its state guidelines should be," he said after addressing the seminar Friday evening.

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is due to hold its general session next March to elect a president, vice president and to draw up the Broad Guidelines of State Policies.

Sarwono said the guidelines had been growing thicker from one general assembly to the next because MPR members did not have the courage to decide which concepts should be included and which should be implied.

Sarwono said many concepts in Golkar's draft of state policies would be accommodated in the final document because Golkar won the May general election. (imn)