Servants of the public

Servants of the public

Up to the present, complaints are still being heard from the
business world regarding the various factors that cause
inefficiency and our high-cost economy.

Could it be that the government is not paying any attention
whatsoever to those complaints? The answer is a definite no. Many
efforts have been taken by the (central) government to reduce or
even eliminate those factors. The President has even instructed
all the authorities concerned to get rid all levies that are not
directly related to production and distribution. Unfortunately,
the results have not been as expected.

Many factors are at play to prevent those efforts from
succeeding. One of those factors is a lack of recognition among
government officials (Korpri) that they are servants of the
public. Their neofeudal demeanor which sees the public as common
people who need them -- not as citizens who deserve to be served
by them -- still appears to be ingrained in many officials. It is
therefore not surprising that in order to ensure that business of
any sort is processed smoothly, extra costs have to be paid.

In addition, a major cause of the inability of the bureaucracy
to keep pace with society's progress is the government's
ambivalent attitude regarding the demands of an increasingly
critical public. On the one hand, the government often emphasizes
the importance of a clean and efficient administration. On the
other hand no concrete efforts are being made to turn that
statement into reality.

Therefore, the remarks which President Soeharto made yesterday
(Monday) were quite correct. Korpri, as the repository
organization of our civil servants should particularly reflect on
the role and function which it has to assume in the present
changing world. Even more important, it is time to recognize that
the sacred mission of a government official is to serve the
public for the sake of the well-being of the nation as a whole.
If this is recognized, then we can hope that Korpri will in the
future become an force accelerating us on our path towards
national progress.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta