Measuring Empathy Behind Official Travel Showcasing
The face of our bureaucracy today is like soil crumbling under the scorching heat of the energy crisis. While the public is forced to ration every litre of fuel, social media timelines still capture images of official activities in five-star hotels.
This phenomenon, which can be termed official travel flexing, is not merely documentation of events but a test of empathy for public servants.
The digital trail of joy from official events at tourist spots creates a deep emotional rift.
There is a suffocating irony when civil servants seek self-validation by showcasing it to a public struggling with subsidy savings.
The visual disparity between rows of suitcases in hotel lobbies and the reality of citizens queuing at petrol stations sends a crucial ethical signal.
The efficiency instruction through Circular Letter (SE) of the Minister for State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform No. 3 of 2026 on energy management should not be interpreted merely as a ritual of turning off lights, but as a call to nurture emotional closeness with the people.
The real challenge is to build ecological integrity through the creation of Green Competencies.
These green competencies are not just technical digital skills, but a modern manifestation of the noble values of etiquette towards nature that have long been rooted in our culture.
Civil servants with high empathy will realise that the dignity of the profession is no longer measured by mass physical mobilisation, but by the precision of benefits produced with minimal carbon footprint.
In public management, efficiency arises from the alignment of organisational structure and the mental readiness of its people.
This perspective aligns with the argument by Swanson and Holton (2009) that performance is the confluence of capacity and opportunity within the system.
The government has opened opportunities through flexible working (WFH), but this space will be empty if not filled by apparatus with environmental literacy.
Creating apparatus sensitive to the crisis demands a fundamentally transformed human resource development pattern.
Referring to the principles of Self-Directed Learning by Malcolm Knowles (1975), the state can no longer spoon-feed civil servants through classical training in hotels that leave high carbon footprints and risks of social jealousy.