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.