Hearing with the President

Hearing with the President

Viewing the hearing (broadcast live by SCTV on Nov. 18, 1999)
at the House of Representatives with the President and Vice
President, I made a temporary conclusion that, evidently, the
executive institution (president and vice president) and the
legislators have yet to learn much about democracy.

This is so because they were dealing with the issues of
abolishment of the ministry of information and ministry of social
affairs and how to solve the problems therein, particularly
concerning the existence of the civil servants whose careers and
fate are uncertain.

Unfortunately, the hearing did not give a clear and positive
solution to the crucial problems. Actually, perfect and
satisfactory solution should have been found and the future fate
of the civil servants of the two defunct ministries should have
been settled.

To change the name of the information ministry to the ministry
of communications and the social affairs ministry to the ministry
of people's service is not to be worried about, provided the
careers of each and every employee of the two ministries can
continue with certainty.

There will be no need for the President to recruit new civil
servants and build new offices, but channel the present human
resources to the three newly established departments in the
present Cabinet, namely: the ministry of maritime exploration,
the ministry of human rights affairs and the ministry of social
services.
These ministries have no offices of their own, neither are fairly
capable personnel available yet.

What was clear from the faces of the concerned civil servants
after the hearing was the faint look of uncertainty and a big
question mark about their future careers.

ZULASRIL

Jakarta