Why civil servants' neutrality a must?

By Prijono Tjiptoherijanto

JAKARTA (JP): The urgent need to keep civil servants neutral in the increasingly dynamic political life is obvious to most people.

The management and recruitment procedures of the 3.9 million state employees, therefore, must be such that they are able to separate political positions from those of career postings, as well as political authority from operational authority.

High standard of professionalism and good performance are two of the reasons why we need to maintain the neutrality of civil servants.

A lesson that can be drawn from the past, when civil servants were turned into a tool of the power holder to retain the status quo, is that professionalism and high achievement are needed even more now that we have embarked upon the regional autonomy policy.

Scholars have projected myriads of problems pertaining to affairs of state employees brought about by the autonomy drive. These include:

(a) The possibility of uncontrolled growth and structure of civil service owing to greater authority divested into regional administration. There is a danger that recruitment, promotion, and transfer to new posts may depend not on the merit system but "marriage" connection.

The significant authority over civil service has been made possible with the issuance of Government Regulation No. 96/2000 which enables governors, regents and mayors to appoint and discharge civil servants in their respective regions up to IV/e Echelon, which is the highest rank in the service. This authority previously belonged to the President and application was centralized in nature.

(b) The possibility that the quality of civil servants will differ from one region to another as a result of the new authority referred to above. This would be especially true if civil servants' mobility is impaired because regions preferred to have their own people in certain posts.

Poor quality and mobility will combine in hurting the civil service's career development.

(c) It is apparent that a lot has yet to be done to put civil service management in order in the next five years. It is questionable, however, whether the regional administrations have the capacity to carry out the task if their human resources are indeed of poor quality.

A good management system should instead be carried out by a neutral body, one that is unaffected by political influences.

What can be done to reduce the burden of problems facing Indonesian civil service?

First, the central government should only recruit new employees following a thorough analysis of the existing needs, work-load and the scope of responsibility. Also needed is a preceding application of standardized recruitment procedures that apply nationwide. This is to ensure uniformity and aimed at avoiding gaps in number, quality, and placement of civil servants across the country.

Secondly, the government should apply a merit-based recruitment procedures and performance appraisal. Objectivity should be maintained in both processes using computer assisted tests, especially for candidates with university education and for professionals.

Thirdly, the government should strengthen and build the capacity of the institutions in charge of regional personnel within five years time since the launching of the regional autonomy drive.

In accordance with Presidential Decree No.159 of 2000, this institution is called Badan Kepegawaian Daerah (BKD, Regional Employee Affairs Agency), which has a direct and professional relations with Badan Kepegawaian Negara or BKN (State Employee Affairs Agency) both in the central government and regional BKN Offices that are spread over to eight work regions at the moment.

At the core of this campaign to develop the personnel offices of civil service is the need for human resource development, thus producing professional, politically-neutral professionals with global outlook and high morality.

We may not begin to enjoy the fruits of this effort until ten to 15 years to come as there remains at the moment the need for a centralized employee affairs management and administration.

Regional autonomy and decentralization are extremely necessary in financial balance and to ensure smooth delivery of goods and services, but not in personnel management system.

It seems that the awareness that autonomy is an obligation rather than a right, should grow and have roots in each and every policy carried out by regional leaders if we indeed want to avoid national disintegration and separatism.

The writer is a professor in Human Resources Economy at the University of Indonesia concurrently Head of State Employee Affairs Agency (BKN).