State bureaucracy reform needed to face challenges

DEPOK, West Java (JP): Indonesia's sluggish and centralistic bureaucracy needs to be reformed in order to address people's increasing demands for better services and face international challenges, an expert says.

Azhar Kasim, a state administration scholar, said in a speech marking his professorship at the University of Indonesia's school of social and political sciences here Saturday that Indonesia's four million civil servants still provided substandard services.

"Such public service is an obstacle to many spheres of public life... it is not supportive of business enterprises because it creates inefficiency and it fails to develop many of the community's potentials," Azhar said in a ceremony attended by rector Asman Boedisantoso and State Minister of Environment Juwono Sudarsono, who is also a professor of international politics at the school.

Azhar said the inefficiency was due to the centralistic nature of the state administration, which relied heavily on detailed procedures and regulations to prevent violations.

Feudalism and paternalism pervades the country's political system and culture, he added.

Azhar said reform could take one of two forms, the first being a top-to-bottom approach through reorganizing, downsizing and economizing measures. A second approach could stress reform through dialogs, perseverance, deep caring and a wish to change from all members of the organization.

He suggested reforms could start with a focus on the establishment of policies to improve Indonesia's competitiveness and national leadership incorporating the collective wisdom of the people.

Azhar also told Antara that in order for Indonesia to lift itself out of its economic doldrums, the government should provide transparent bureaucratic services.

Transparency is needed to prevent miscommunication between civil servants and the public, he added.

"What is really happening here is that both officials and the community do not understand their own roles, rights and responsibilities," he said.

He said some government officials could not differentiate between their own interests and public interests when it came to their family business enterprises.

"We need to evaluate the orientation of our state administration," he said.

"In the United States, it's not easy being a government official, because of tight public control. Here, most people do not understand their role (as a social control mechanism) maybe because of the bureaucratic feudalism that we inherited from the past," he said. (swe)