Neutrality of civil servants

Neutrality of civil servants

From Republika

This letter was inspired by the title of an article in one of Jakarta's dailies on Nov. 21, 1991, about six months before the 1992 general election, reading: Civil servants: Involvement in political parties.

This is just like the peeling of a proverbial fruit. If you don't peel it, you know nothing about what is inside. If you peel it, you can see only seeds. This fruit will appear once in five years, near a general election. At present this fruit is ripe again.

For over eight years the United Development Party (PPP) has nurtured a hope and has been dreaming to make this hope come true. Finally what it has been hoping for has materialized with the signing of a government regulation in lieu of Law No. 5/1999, which spells out the laws on political affairs, concerning particularly the political right of civil servants and their involvement in political parties.

It is clear from the government regulation referred to above that civil servants need not be loyal to one particular sociopolitical organization. Requiring civil servants to keep their loyalty to one sociopolitical organization only is both a violation against the philosophy and position of civil servants as state apparatuses, servants of the state and servants of the community with loyalty to Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution, and a dilemma. Why a dilemma? Because in terms of their duties, civil servants not only perform their general administrative function but can also mobilize and expedite development undertakings, through their dedication, in the interest of the people. In other words, civil servants do not belong to a particular sociopolitical organization.

The New Order's practice of requiring civil servants to be loyal to one particular sociopolitical organization has both adversely affected civil servants in terms of their perception by the community and aroused the general public's dislike for them when more and more of the failure and rottenness of the New Order regime has come to light.

This government regulation in lieu of Law No. 5/1999 reflects the good intention of President B.J. Habibie's administration to play fair in the upcoming election, in the context of ensuring that the election will be held in the most honest and fair way possible so that there will no longer be people's representatives given the second position while the ballot counting shows that they earn the first or third position.

Besides, the government now allows the biggest opportunity to non-governmental organizations to help monitor the elections, which is aimed at politically educating the nation after being politically shackled for 32 years.

We are at the threshold of the 1999 election now. The government has made available the software and hardware for the election. Suspicion is no longer needed at this stage. All that is left to sociopolitical organizations is to brace themselves for the election.

The general election must be held as scheduled and all the stages planned, for the election must be properly followed.

It is everybody's hope that the 1999 general election, which will be the most historic momentum in the reform era, will be plain sailing. Therefore, all Indonesian people must sincerely and earnestly pray to God that He will continue to protect them.

DAUD HERYANTO

Karawang, West Java