Ginandjar says bureaucracy lacks professionalism

By Dwi Atmanta

MEDAN (JP): The bureaucracy lacks professionalism because of local culture rather than its staff's meager salaries and poor training, State Minister of Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita said here yesterday.

Ginandjar said the bureaucracy had recruited many university graduates and its staff enjoyed better-than-average salaries but it was still not performing.

"I have learned from some developing countries that high salaries have nothing to do with better performance in the bureaucracy," Ginandjar told a seminar held by the Indonesian Association for Social Sciences Development.

"The problem here is that professional ethics do not work well within the bureaucracy. Our bureaucracy lacks the right mentality and attitude to serve the public," he added.

He said Indonesia could learn from other developing countries.

Secretary-general of the Ministry of Home Affairs Suryatna Subrata admitted recently that bribery had marred the recruitment of staff under his ministry.

The bureaucracy, which comprises almost half the country's six-million-strong Civil Servant Corps, has long been ridiculed for its inefficiency and corruption. It has also been criticized for supporting the dominant political group Golkar.

Ginandjar said the bureaucracy's image was not that bad, although he admitted it was not functioning as expected.

He said that bureaucracies in developing countries also paid little attention to the poor because of their failure to understand the economic benefits of social development.

Ginandjar said that social development aimed to boost economic growth.

He quoted a study conducted in 90 countries by World Bank expert Nancy Birdsall which revealed a positive correlation between average rates of school enrollments and average rates of economic growth.

"Economic growth is not the result of increased investment and labor alone, but also a consequence of more educated human resources," Ginandjar said.

He warned that development programs in many countries had failed because they over emphasized economic growth and involved only an elite group of people.

"The public did not take part in the decision-making processes but carried out government programs without knowing the motives and objectives of the programs," he said.

Stability

Nazarudin Sjamsudin of Indonesia University's School of Social and Political Sciences told the seminar that the international free trade zone would become effective next century, and that the government would not radically change its policies on economic development.

"The government will push economic development to match its counterparts in developed countries. So will Indonesia's neighbors such as Malaysia and Singapore," he said.

Consequently, the government would seek every avenue to maintain political stability, Nazarudin said.

"Armed Forces' members from the 1945 generation will be completing their service by 2003, but their more professional successors will maintain their dual function (in defense and politics) to protect economic development programs," he said.

"In such a situation, political development is not expected to grow as fast as people expect," he added.

But he was optimistic the government would not impose too many restrictions on the public.

"Our political freedom now is far better than it was 10 years ago. I believe that at least the political circumstances in the next decade will be better than in this one," he said.

The social scientists will end their week-long program with the election of an executive chairman for 1997 to 2002.