The long and painful process of reforming a government

The long and painful process of reforming a government

By Owen Podger

This is the second of two articles on the obstacles blocking
attempts to reform the government.

JAKARTA (JP): Why has the government delayed implementing
functional positions (jabatan fungsional)? The reason given by
the Ministry of Finance is that the country cannot afford it.
But how can the country continue with a system that so blatantly
prevents proper human resource management?

Civil service administration in Indonesia has had two
characteristics tied directly to the New Order's culture of
corruption, collusion and nepotism, known by the Indonesian
acronym KKN. The first is the gross underpayment of both the
civil and defense service. In the case of defense, military
business activities have been justified because they help to
supplement meager military pay. Corruption flourishes under this
arrangement, perfected in Central Java under the Old Order by
none other than Soeharto.

In the case of the civil service, the separation of
development budgets from routine budgets, and separation of
project structures from organization structures, has created "wet
and dry" offices. A highly developed system of collusion and
budget diversion has been given cultural legitimacy because just
some of it has been used to top up deliberately low pay. One
suspects the motive for not increasing wages has been to create
the allegiances outside the formal and professional structures,
upon which the corruption depends.

The second characteristic stems out of those allegiances. It
is the system of patronage where promotion depends on allegiances
and returns rather than on competence. The examination system for
government appointments has long been corrupted, and opposition
to it has led to loss of life in at least two provinces in recent
months. Patronage from Soeharto is the rumored motive for the
murder of reporter Udin in Yogyakarta. The current government
espouses reform, but rumors still abound of massive payments made
for senior posts, even since May 1998.

How is such a system to be replaced by a competence-based work
culture?

Implementation of functional positions, with pay based on
professional qualifications, is an essential start. The current
subversive reward system must be abandoned. Professional
associations (such as a local government planners' association)
and service unit associations (such as a solid waste management
association) need to be established, and financed, to urgently
develop professionalism within each profession and each area of
community service.

Once a basis for collective professionalism has been
developed, a process is needed to pull organizations and civil
servants towards effective behavior, like the wire in
orthodontics. Civil service managers need the power to organize.
Most government organization are created by presidential decree,
and the "organization structure" set by ministerial decree.

These decrees stipulate the tasks and functions of
organizations, usually to the fifth level of hierarchy. Decrees
go through a rather slow and hazardous process of approval, and
hence are very difficult to change. Balance and symmetry between
divisions within organizations are more important than
effectiveness, or the demands for competencies, or volume of work
to be done.

Effectiveness cannot be considered in the current system of
organization, as organizations are defined before the programs
that they have to carry out.

Throughout government, programs are divided into routine and
development, with separate, complex processes of approval.
Managers are able to plan programs, but are unable to change
their organization to carry them out effectively.

In fact, a total new organization structure is created to
manage development programs, including project managers and
project treasurers approved by the president himself, (or the
governor for local government projects). By creating two
management structures, one for routine and one for projects,
management is deliberately weakened, and responsibility spread.
In the newspeak of the New Order, this reduced opportunities for
corruption. The reality is that nobody is held accountable, for
effectiveness or for corruption. And the patronage system
thrives.

To respond to this complexity, managers who try to be
effective, or corrupt, must play "tricks". Unable to make
organizational decisions, the dominant management style becomes
manipulation. There are in fact very few true managers in the
Indonesia civil service, and a great many manipulators. As very
many senior government personnel have studied management
overseas, and have failed to demand the system change, it is
reasonable to conclude that New Order policy has been to deprive
managers of the power to organize, in order to foster this
culture of patronage.

To change this culture, organization must be returned as a
tool rather than a constraint of management. Leadership should,
of course, continue to establish the policies and programs. It
should not, however, separate the planning process of development
programs, routine programs and organization. Once all programs
have been identified, and the financial, economic and
institutional feasibility verified, managers must be free to
organize, and required to organized, and accountable for
organization.

Organization must empower government to execute its works
programs, changing when the work programs change.

And what is the purpose of government programs? The purpose
of teeth is to bite and the chew. The purpose of government is
to regulate and serve the public. In its more than 30 years, the
New Order and its series of Development Cabinets frequently lost
track of its purpose. The number of students attending school
became more important than learning, certificates became more
valuable than education, the capacity of water supply more
important than satisfying the demand for clean water, length of
roads built more important than the sustainability of access to
markets and services.

Worse still, the government frequently reversed the direction
of service. The community was expected to serve development, and
serve the government. This feudal reversal of the principle of
democracy and good government can be witnessed at all levels of
government, from the management of motorcades, to the treatment
of customers paying for services, and even the treatment of out-
patients in many public hospitals who are controlled rather than
served. Without transparent links to the community and closeness
to the customers, the government has no trustworthy basis to
learn their needs and aspirations.

While the culture requires workers to tell the boss what he
wants to hear, and customers never complain, government leaders
can never believe what they are told by staff, customers, or the
populace. There is no feedback. The leaders deceive the public,
and the public deceives the leaders.

In the simile of government reform being like orthodontics,
there may still be some teeth that need to be pulled, and it is
up to the political processed to determine that. It seems there
is much law reform needed before Indonesia becomes negara hukum,
a nation based on the rule of law.

Professionalism and power to organize in government are needed
to enable the government to move toward effectiveness. Yet the
most painful aspect of reform will be for government, whoever the
government may be, to learn to listen to the community, and for
the community to learn to state its concerns. The crux of the
cultural change that is needed is democracy.

The writer is a former adviser to the National Development
Planning Board (Bappenas) on urban management and urban
development policy.