The long road towards better public service

How can calls for reform help citizens to get better public services? The Jakarta Post reporters Aloysius Unditu, Christiani S. Tumelap, Johannes Simbolon, Lukman Natanegara, Stevie Emilia and Ridwan M. Sijabat examine the issue.

JAKARTA (JP): From the cradle to the grave, once a person has been born there is no way that he or she can avoid administrative procedures.

One must have a birth certificate and identity card, often a driver's license is required and, of course, a death certificate when this mortal coil has been left behind.

Obtaining any of these bureaucratic necessities involves costly and confusing hassles, the source of enduring headaches.

To obtain an identity card in Jakarta one is only supposed to require a copy of their family card, photos, a copy of the expired card and a Rp 1,000 fee. The new ID card is issued the same day and three blissful years pass until the process has to be repeated.

This, you may have gathered, is not how things always happen: "I had to wait two weeks to get my new card," said Kristianto (name changed), a private bank employee who attempted to renew his identity card.

"Why does it take so long just to renew my card? I can't keep leaving the office to find out what is going on with it," said the man who lives in Tebet, South Jakarta, and works on Jl. Jend. Sudirman in Central Jakarta. He paid the statutory fee of Rp 1,000.

Kristianto thought by paying the legal amount he was acting as a model citizen should.

But the simple truth is that those who follow statutory procedures and are either too stupid or too naive to oil the wheels of the bureaucracy have to be ready to be ignored.

Franz Magnis-Suseno, a professor of ethics at the Driyarkara Institute of Philosophy in Central Jakarta, shares the view that renewing an identity card or issuing a driver's licenses should be simple tasks. However, public servants have abused their power and turned these jobs into lucrative moneyspinning occupations, he added.

"... they've changed their role from public servants to public kings that asked to be served. They only serve you if they are paid," he said.

This must be stopped, he said, because it completely violated the spirit of reform.

Sociologist Sardjono Jatiman agreed the public was sick of the government's attitude to public services and questioned the necessity of some of the bureaucratic procedures.

He said that many of the procedures were there simply to give those who issue the cards more opportunities to profit. Public servants, he added, had a basic attitude that "if the process could be made more complicated then why make it easier?"

Assimilating documents and data required by the authorities are just a small part of the time consuming process which urbanites say they have no time for.

Officials say they are not oblivious to such complaints. Abdul Kahfi, Jakarta deputy governor for administrative affairs, said the administration planned to simplify public services "in line with the spirit of reform."

Processing identity cards just once in a lifetime would be ideal, but Kahfi said that it would then be hard to then keep track of people's movements in a highly mobile society.

Jakarta Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said police had pledged to improve services and kick out driving license touts a long time ago.

A computerized system was introduced but the touts remained.

A further complication in the process of issuing licenses exists in the form of PT Citra Permata Persada, a company owned by former president Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardijanti Rukmana, which has a contract with the police to process all driving license applications.

According to a reliable police source, the company claims a staggering Rp 48,000 of the Rp 52,500 fee charged to issue or renew every single driver's license.

Chief of the National Police Gen. Dibyo Widodo said the contract would shortly be reviewed.

Despite many shortcomings, Ryaas Rasyid, rector of the State Institute of Public Administration, said bureaucracy was needed to maintain order. He believed the arrogant attitude of many state employees could be traced back to the feudalistic culture of bygone eras.

During the period of Dutch colonial rule, officials considered themselves to be of a higher status than other members of society.

But this, along with the argument that bribes were acceptable because of low civil service pay, was no excuse, Ryaas said.

"They are paid less because there are too many of them there ..." Ryaas said. He blamed incorrect economic policy which favored a select group of tycoons and had failed to create enough private sector jobs. The government then had no choice but to absorb many of the less qualified and talented people who had been rejected by the private sector, Ryaas argued, adding that half the present number of civil service staff would be enough to fulfill the administrative needs of the country.

A 1995 report by the National Board of Statistics revealed that there are 3,965,778 civil servants in the country.

The lowest ranking civil servant earns Rp 80,000 a month, well below the Rp 172,500 monthly minimum wage for Greater Jakarta.

Ryaas and other observers say that reforming the civil service will take a long time and staff cuts will have to wait until the economy improves.

However, Ryaas said the bureaucracy did not really want to change the system and would continue to attempt to profit from the obstacles which they themselves had created.

"Many officials enjoy the status quo and they are not adequately pressured by the public to change."

Former state minister of administrative reforms Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said that improving and streamlining the bureaucracy was not only the government's responsibility, adding that the public too had a role to play.

The lack of support given to government efforts to improve services has undermined their efficacy, Sarwono said. He referred to the national drive to improve services under former state minister of administrative reforms T.B. Silalahi, who replaced him.

Sarwono introduced the popular acronym waskat (pengawasan melekat), which calls for the internal supervision of government agencies in the absence of public control.

Sarwono said change could only happen under a more democratic political system which gave the public control over the government.

"At present, public control of the government is very weak because they have no means through which to voice their political will," Sarwono said.

The condition would only worsen if nothing was done to encourage public support for reform of the bureaucracy, he added. People were generally apathetic and encouraging support was made even harder by the "one way communication," from the government to the people, Sarwono said.

He said this practice was all pervading and added that, for example, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation often complained that government regulations were issued without any public consultation.

"We will need at least 15 years to introduce a democratic political system," Sarwono said, "Don't expect to the whole political system to change overnight."