Megawati, Soeharto call for thrifty lifestyle
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Megawati Soekarnoputri is not alone in her campaign for thrifty lifestyle. Former president Soeharto, known for his corrupt regime, had also campaigned for such lifestyles since the very first year he became president.
The official campaign for thrifty lifestyles, nevertheless, would not came into force until 1974 when Soeharto issued Presidential Decree No. 10/1974.
The decree was issued apparently in response to the public's outcry for the rampant corruption. In the very same year, the country witnesses violent student protests in Jakarta, with burning of Japanese vehicles.
The decree prohibited government officials from either taking or giving any present; using luxurious cars as official cars; visiting certain public establishments; staging grandiose party for state institutions; and organizing lavish private parties.
The decision gave the political momentum for what was later known as the Thrifty Live Movement.
Soon after the issuance of the presidential decree, the trade minister promised to ban the imports of luxurious goods and review the plan to assemble 2,000-cc sedans, the police conducted operations to prevent luxurious cars from entering the country, and commanders of the Armed Forces (now the Indonesian Military) told their troops to be the role models for the movement.
The Thrifty Live Movement, however, lived shortly as it existed only in the official's speeches, newspaper editorials and religious sermons, but never in real life.
After the movement died down, Soeharto refreshed the campaign in 1992 through another presidential decree, No. 47/1992.
Then state minister for administrative reform TB Silalahi even went a long way of ensuring that those two presidential decrees were followed by state officials by drafting the decrees' implementation guidelines in the following year.
The guidelines provided detail list of things to be avoided by public officials and state institutions, including giving or receiving any gift, even a flower bouquet.
The thrifty lifestyle campaign, as expected, soon died down especially after the country enjoyed strong growth and high investment.
In 1998, when the economic crisis hit Indonesia hard, the campaign made a brief return. Several high-ranking officials urged the people to live frugally. Food should be boiled, instead of being deep-fried to cut oil consumption.
The campaign was revived again during the initial period of Megawati's administration.
State Minister for Administrative Reform Feisal Tamin issued Ministerial Instruction No 357 on Measures for Efficiency and Thrifty Lifestyle among State Officials.
Besides reiterating the spirit of the earlier two presidential decrees, the ministerial instruction went further into petty details.
The instruction, for instance, dictated that ordinary correspondence and reports from state institutions must be typed in Arial 12 letter-style, using 1.5 space, and on the cheap 70 gram paper.
It also instructed state officials to use water, phone and electricity as efficient as possible.
Feisal Tamin also urged high-ranking officials to lead an thrifty lifestyle by not wearing expensive suits, for instance.
His own attempt to give an example -- by using a Toyota Kijang minivan as the minister's official car instead of the black Volvo limousine -- once had made Feisal Tamin run into trouble, when the presidential guards denied him entry to the palace.
Leading-by-example apparently was not a popular idea among government officials, state legislators and the privileged members of society in the country.
As the campaign apparently died down, Megawati refreshed it in Bali earlier this month, when she told her faithful supporters to run a thrifty lifestyle. The call, however, seems to hit a high wall, as the first family themselves could not set as an example in pursuing thrifty lifestyle.