President Megawati criticizes nation's lack of discipline

President Megawati criticizes nation's lack of discipline

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri criticized the nation by saying
that the people lacked the discipline and commitment to bring the
country out of the prolonged crisis.

Delivering her address to mark the National Productivity Day
on Wednesday at the State Palace, the President said the nation
was still running low in the fighting spirit department, and
needed every bit of it to improve their productivity to help
mitigate the crises that the nation has been mired in since 1997.

She cited her frequent headaches when dealing with unmotivated
state officials, "even, I have often been angered by the absence
of a will (to rebuild this country)."

"Our workers have remained underdogs compared with their
colleagues in other countries. It is so hard to make Indonesian
people disciplined," she lamented, adding that it was necessary
to do a nationwide campaign for a hard-working culture among the
people.

The President emphasized that Indonesians had the potential to
compete with other nations, but continually lose the competition
because of weak discipline.

"Indonesia's strength lies it its vast human resources; its
core problem is the lack of discipline and motivation, which I am
deeply concerned about," she said, while adding that she would
make the issue a central theme to her presidential election
campaign next year.

She said that the country's productivity depended greatly on
each individuals' willingness and ability to produce more and
better, whether they are civil servants or employed in the
private sector.

Marking her 100th day in office, back in October 2001,
Megawati criticized her aides who simply gave her glowing reports
of their work, just to make her happy, a move she called Asal Ibu
Senang.

She made no direct mention of the unemployment problem that
has reached an alarming level or the absence of legal certainty
that has affected the investment climate. It can only be assumed
that she was saying if people were more disciplined, unemployment
and rule of law would take care of itself.

The president also made no mention of the 109,000 civil
servants who seemingly exist in on the pay-out lists only.

The president has several times threatened to dismiss civil
servants who violate the law or do not agree with her
government's policies, but so far there have been no reports of
dismissals and no significant improvements are evident in most
government offices.

The government has not introduced any programs that directly
deal with the low quality of human resources nor has it made much
of an effort to improve the education system. More than 70
percent of currently employed people, or some 90 million people,
do not have a high school diploma. Approximately 5 percent of the
population have graduated from university.

"Thousands of times, I have said that it is not necessary to
hold workshops and seminars to discuss these things; the most
important thing is (what has been done) in reality," the
President said.

She concluded that it was important not to get bogged down in
endless, insignificant debate about how to do it or why to do it,
but just that it needs to be done, and it begins with training
and discipline of the people.

"We should not put such a high priority on the technical
matters, but focus on improving the ability of our human
resources," said the President.