Saudi Arabia's Public Service Revolution: A Mirror for Indonesia
The land journey from Mecca to Jeddah on the afternoon of 14 July 2026 presented a view of a desert landscape slowly blending with the magnificent modern architecture of the Red Sea coast. Behind the wheel, my close friend, a local who has witnessed the ups and downs of his country’s modernisation, suddenly showed his mobile phone screen with a broad smile.
“In the past, if my grandfather or child was sick, we had to queue for hours at the clinic,” he began. “Yesterday, I just opened the Sehhaty and Tawakkalna apps. I simply requested a medical check-up, and shortly after, the doctor’s arrival schedule appeared. The doctor came to the house, did the examination, and the medicine was delivered right to the door. All free of charge, without a single penny in additional costs,” said Hatim Makki.
What my friend recounted is not science fiction, but the daily reality for Saudi citizens today. Under the command of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Saudi Arabia is experiencing what can aptly be called a “Silent Public Service Revolution,” a quantum digital leap that has successfully cut through convoluted bureaucracy, reducing it to a few taps on a gadget screen.
For us in Indonesia, this transformation is not merely a success story from a neighbouring country, but a great mirror and a valuable lesson on how digitalisation can be distributed equitably.
A Digital Leap Across All Service Lines
The core of this transformation is the integration of a national super-app. Applications like Tawakkalna (developed by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, or SDAIA) have now evolved into a giant digital ecosystem for the lives of Saudi citizens.
First, Home Healthcare: Through the digital health platform, elderly citizens, chronic disease sufferers, and people with disabilities can access medical care, post-operative rehabilitation, and even respiratory therapy directly at home, free of charge.
Second, Digital Social Safety Net: This transformation also radically touches the aspect of financial welfare. Through an integrated platform, the government now automatically distributes monthly benefits to the poor, low-income families (Citizen Account), and pensioners. Their financial entitlements are transferred directly to accounts linked to their digital identity, without the need to process exhausting physical paperwork every month.
Third, Paperless Bureaucracy: Matters of civil documentation, licensing, and even social insurance are now centralised under a single, strongly verified digital identity.