Yunus: Information ministry may become obsolete

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Information Muhammad Yunus, acknowledging the government in the past spent too much money on his ministry which often only functioned to restrict information, said yesterday he could envision the department being scrapped altogether.

In precedent-setting candor for an information minister, Yunus said the day might come when a government bureau took over the tasks of the ministry.

Yet this would be dependent on the state-funded TVRI television station and RRI radio network becoming financially independent and the mass media being thoroughly maintained through laws which allow for public scrutiny.

"By then, I think the ministry would need to be made smaller," he said. "It could be in two, three or five years' time from now before it can be materialized."

Yunus, an active army lieutenant general who was formerly known as Yunus Yosfiah, was speaking during a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission I for information affairs here.

"By then, the government apparatus would have to minimize their intervention into people's affairs... They should only let laws control people's affairs."

His frank discussion of the possible dissolution of the ministry is unprecedented for a serving minister.

Yunus even went so far as to say that closing the ministry could save hundreds of billions of rupiah from the state budget allocated to fund the 51,000-personnel strong ministry.

He argued savings from such efficiency measures could be put to good use, such as in improving the welfare of civil servants.

"Rich countries" like Japan and the United States do not have information ministries, he said.

"There are only about 18 or 20 ministries in Japan... America doesn't have an information ministry either, only the USIS, the United States Information Service.

"Meanwhile, we are a poor country. But because we organize our bureaucratic structure inappropriately, we hamper our own pace of development."

He also touched on the ministry's role in curbing dispersal of information.

"We feel that the state has spent too much money for the operational and salary costs of civil servants (within the ministry of information), while on the other hand it has in reality so far only restricted the flow of information to society."

Yunus revealed a case of delinquency in duties from the ministry, which he took over only a month ago.

He said the ministry had a backlog of about 90 press publication applications -- "the number is astonishing" -- dating back six or seven years.

Putting the proposals on hold was tantamount to hindering the rights of people from obtaining more information which they needed to help nurture their own creativity, he said.

He believed people with a broad base of knowledge could help accelerate the pace of the national development.

"Isn't it ironic that we should pay people (civil servants) to hinder the development?"

Yunus claimed he was able to approve and sign 20 new press publication permits "in just two weeks time".

He has impressed some in media circles by revoking a controversial 1984 ministerial regulation which allowed the government to arbitrarily annual press publication permits.

His much-lauded policy was followed by the issuance of a new ministerial decree which simplifies procedures to obtain publication permits. (aan)