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