Retirement-age extension gets cautious welcome

By Sugianto Tandra

JAKARTA (JP): The government's plan to extend the mandatory retirement age for civil servants from 55 to 65 has been hailed by experts and politicians, but they said that the move must be thoroughly thought out.

Most argue for selective extension rather than making it across the board.

One expert warned that the extension should in no way hamper the process of "regeneration" in the civil service, by denying promotions to young officials.

Sofian Effendi, a public administration expert at Gadjah Mada University, said the extension should be given only to those in "functional" rather than "structural" positions.

Functional positions in the civil service are jobs that are related to planning, researching and analyzing, positions where experience and maturity count most, and that finding replacements is difficult.

"There are no barriers of entry in these positions to younger people," he said.

The term "zero growth" as it applied in the recruitment policy of civil servants is not known for these positions where experience really counts, he said.

Sofian said extending the retirement age will be to the government's benefit.

He said the extension could be applied to a selected number of first and second-echelon officials in structural posts, such as regents, judges, governors and rectors, in cases when finding their successors is difficult.

Generally, extending the retirement age for those in structural positions could backfire because it would get in the way of the regeneration process and the transfer of national leadership, he said.

It will set the process back by 10 years, he pointed out.

"The younger generation of officials who are ripe and ready to assume the structural positions will be forced to wait another 10 years. Meanwhile, keeping the older generation employed will create some kind of gerontocracy," Sofian told The Jakarta Post.

He said the civil service needs the injection of young blood to prepare the country to face the globalization era.

The government's plan to extend the retirement age for civil servants was revealed this month by State Minister of Administrative Reforms T.B. Silalahi.

The plan is being worked out jointly by Silalahi's office, the Civil Service Administration Agency, the State Secretary and the Ministry of Home Affairs. It will be submitted to President Soeharto for approval some time next year.

Silalahi said that at 55, a person is not only still productive, but also more mature and professional, Antara reported.

Under the 1979 Government Regulation No. 32, civil servants retire the moment they turn 56. But the regulation allows for extension for selected positions.

Some first-echelon and second-echelon officials are already being retained until they are 60. And government researchers are kept on the payroll until they are 65.

Awaloedin Djamin, a former National Police chief, said he supported the idea to extend the retirement age, given that the average life expectancy in Indonesia has risen from 55 years in the 1950s to 63 at present.

"It's a global phenomena that the average life expectancy is increasing and it is natural for the government to adjust the retirement age," he told the Post.

But Iskandar Mandji, a House of Representatives member, takes a different view on the matter, saying that everybody should be allowed to enjoy the last years of their life.

"It will certainly be unfair to expect civil servants to work to the last, leaving them with no time to enjoy their golden years," he said.

A member of House Commission VI for labor affairs said the extension should be applied selectively and that the plan, if applied across the board, could be costly for the government.

It would be better if that money was spent on improving civil servants' salaries, he said.

He noted the increasing tendency among young people to shun government jobs because of the low pay. "The government has been deprived of the best and brightest graduates, who prefer to work in the private sector," he said.

"One day, the government will become weak compared to the private sector," he warned.

"The extension of the mandatory retirement age should be granted only to good civil servants. Otherwise the government will have to pay extra money without any tradeoff," he said.

He said the civil service could take its cue from the Armed Forces, where extension of services are granted to a selected few.

Another legislator of House Commission VI, Muhsin Bafadal, said the government must study the various impacts of the extension, particularly on the employment front.

"If not followed by the opening of more jobs, the new regulation will cause social problems. More younger people will be denied the chance to join the civil service," Muhsin said.

He suspected that the change in retirement age will be followed immediately by many private companies, which follow the government's line. "This will cause more social effects, if the economy does not produce enough new jobs," he said.