Put service first, bureaucrats told

Put service first, bureaucrats told

JAKARTA (JP): Local administrators must put public services first before anything else in their line of job, Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M said yesterday.

Yogie told a group of 43 regents and city mayors who were in town for a public administration refreshing course that they should not abuse the power and authority entrusted to them.

In the past, local administrators resorted to their power and authority to cover their own technical and managerial shortcomings, he said. "This kind of approach is no longer applicable in this climate of openness and democracy in which people are more critical."

Local administrators are no longer perceived as the rulers of the regions, he said. They should be seen as public servants, he said.

Political observers say this perception had been maintained for a long time because of the term penguasa daerah (regional ruler) that has to this day been used to refer to local administrators since the Dutch colonial era.

"A regional administrator is not an authoritative elite who is not subject to scrutiny from the public or the legislative council. Even the smallest mistake committed by an administrator could prompt people to sue him through the state administrative court or to protest through the media or in the streets."

While local administrators should always stand to be corrected by other people, Yogie said they should strive to minimize the number of corrections because they represent a waste of energy, time and also opportunities.

Yogie emphasized the need for local administrators to strengthen their professionalism in their line of work.

He said in a democracy, relations between the government and the people it serves is more of a partnership and not one of a patron and client. He likened the government as the executive board in a company and the people it serves as the shareholders.

It is the task of the government to understand the people's wishes and to achieve their goals and objectives, he said. (29)