Longer weekends?
It seems that President Soeharto's statement on Wednesday has put to rest the old controversy over the benefits and disadvantages of a long weekend for civil servants. His statement called on businessmen, workers and civil servants to help the nation build prosperous families. To help the process along, Soeharto said plans were in the works to allow civil servants to take Saturdays and Sundays off so parents could spend more time with their families.
The present trend towards having small families has its down side in the form of weakened family bonds, Soeharto said. But while this tendency is a welcome development because it makes families more mobile -- which is vital in a country which is changing from an agricultural society to an industrial one -- it can also weaken family ties. This can mean a declining appreciation for traditional family values. "Bear in mind that the family spirit is one of the main characteristics of our society," he said.
It was in this context of improving the welfare of families and raising the living standards of rural communities that Soeharto mentioned the existence of a government plan to make Saturdays an official weekly holiday in addition to Sundays. Besides, Soeharto said, by allowing employees to take two days-a- week off, substantial savings could be gleaned in various overhead and operating costs, such as those for electricity and telephone communications.
Some of us may recall the controversy that arose some time ago over similar plans made by the Jakarta city administration, who wanted to institutionalize the long weekend for municipal employees. According to the plans proposed by Jakarta's then- Governor Wiyogo Atmodarminto, the scheme would be introduced in stages. At the same time the public would be assured that Jakarta's civil servants would still be working not less than the 37.5 hours a week as required by law.
A number of leading figures, including the then State Minister for Administrative Reform, Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, spoke out against the plan.
As far as the public was concerned, they should not be made to pay for a decline in services. This is probably something the planners could work out. Nevertheless, it is advisable that we mind the findings of a study quoted by a demographer of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Dr. Suharso, in 1991.
According to the findings, only 22 percent of Indonesia's 1.6 million civil servants in public service offices work as long as official regulations require. In Jakarta, only 20 percent of this 22 percent actually do work. The remaining two percent spend their working hours in the office reading newspapers, playing cards or doing other activities unrelated to their jobs. In addition, many civil servants interpret the official working hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. as leaving home at eight o'clock in the morning and getting home at three in the afternoon.
To be honest, we do not know whether such working habits still prevail at present.
Certainly, not all civil servants take their responsibilities so lightly. In fact, there are many who have, throughout their careers, shown a dedication to their jobs that can only be called exemplary.
While we do recognize the merits of a long weekend, we believe that improved efficiency should still be the major concern of those in government who are charged with elevating the performance of our civil servants in general.