Jakartans suffer from 'discriminating' public service, survey says

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Economic, religious and racial discrimination and cronyism are widespread in Jakarta's public service at the subdistrict level, a new survey says.

A report from the Indonesian Institute for Civil Society (INCIS) also shows that residents here doubt if Governor Sutiyoso has the ability to stop corruption at the local level.

"The result of the survey indicate that officials discriminate when they carry out their public service duties," INCIS director Ace Hasan Syadzily said during the weekend.

The survey, made in cooperation with the European Union and the international Partnership Foundation, was carried out in March through direct interviews of 480 respondents in 80 subdistricts, and has a margin of error of 4 percent.

Questions addressed to respondents covered 14 items of public service provision, including the issuing of public documents such as certificates of birth, death, marriage, land and divorce as well as the KTP identity cards.

At least 57.6 percent of respondents said that officials would promptly attend to their needs only if they were offered extra money, while 36.5 percent said they received a quick response due to a friendship or family relationships with officials. About 5.9 percent believed they were treated differently because of their religion, ethnic background or political party affiliations.

In a response to another question, the survey showed that 51.5 percent of respondents said that public officials did not pay attention to poor residents, including 11.3 percent who said that government officials completely ignored them.

"Ideally, each citizen receives equal rights and receives equal treatment regardless their economic standing, friendship, religion, race and political affiliations," Ace said.

The respondents considered the long process to apply for documents as the most serious problem in the public service. A total of 21.9 percent of respondents complained about the long process; 20.2 percent cited corruption in the form of bribery as the biggest problem, while 14.2 percent pointed to the lack of a service mentality in officials, with 12.2 percent saying the procedures were too complicated.

The study also shows that 54.4 percent of respondents expected that it should take from one to seven days to process and issue documents. The Jakarta administration does not set standard lengths of time for all services.

Chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) Azas Tigor stressed that demands for bribes were still rampant in the public service, not only in subdistricts, but at all levels of the bureaucracy.

Tigor said without bribes, officials were reluctant to serve residents.

"I think the administration needs to give serious attention to these problems ... and (the survey) is more evidence that poor residents do not receive equal treatment from the administration," he said at a recent seminar.

Respondents also gave the thumbs-down to a question about whether Governor Sutiyoso had the ability to eradicate corruption at the subdistrict level.

Sutiyoso, however, was credited with an ability to make officials more disciplined, with 66.9 percent of respondents saying they believed he could improve their behavior.

"Jakarta people believe that Sutiyoso will be able to discipline his officials because he is a former military officer," Ace said.