Ginandjar says bureaucracy lacks professionalism

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.