Why civil servants' neutrality a must?

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).