Try wants top graduates to join civil service

JAKARTA (JP): Vice President Try Sutrisno expressed concern yesterday that too few of the country's best graduates were entering the civil service, preferring instead to join the private sector.

"We also need high quality youths to dedicate themselves to the state apparatus (civil service). In the past, most of them have preferred to enter the private sector," Try said while receiving participants of the Indonesian Hindu Youths Organization (Mahasabha) congress.

The three-day congress which began yesterday is being held to elect the organization's national executive board.

"Facing the increasingly heavy challenges of the future, the need to prepare human resources in various fields, particularly the economic sector, must coincide with human resources in the bureaucracy which are also of high quality," the Vice President said.

University graduates from top grade educational institutions, particularly in urban areas, prefer to seek employment in the private sector rather than work as civil servants. Many are believed to be avoiding the service's low wages.

Try maintained that civil servants had to be as able and professionally dedicated as their private sector counterparts if the country was to progress in an increasingly competitive environment.

"We need public officials who are really capable, who are able to play an active, creative and innovative role in this era of global trade," Try added.

Try warned the youths of the potentially negative influences of globalization on their lives, particularly increasing permissiveness, egoism and violence.

"The negative influence of globalization has caused part of our society to become more permissive, egoistic and easily provoked into violence," he said.

Such behavior, according to Try, can easily trigger social unrest because people tend to put individual interests above national ones.

"The younger generation must participate actively in preventing such tendencies, because it can bring the nation into social upheaval," Try said.

Try maintained that, while the government guaranteed the right of freedom of expression, concerns and aspirations had to be channeled properly.

"The government encourages people to express their aspirations when the purpose is not just for individual interests," Try said.

He encouraged Hindu worshipers to preserve and develop Indonesia's national culture which could help strengthen the nation against negative external influences.

Indonesia officially recognizes five religions: Hinduism, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism and Buddhism. Islam is the predominant religion in this country making up 88 percent of the population, while Hindus represent just 2 percent. Most Hindus live in Bali. (06)