Try wants top graduates to join civil service

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)