http://alsaindonesia.org/site/good-governance-the-key-to-achieve-indonesia-prosperity/

AUGUST 2012

Contributor: Raihan Adhitama - ALSA Local Chapter Universitas Gadjah Mada

It has been 66 years that Indonesia obtained its freedom. A long journey of building a republic that is marked with challenges and problems have rather becomes an obstacle for the advancement and development of Indonesia. One of the most important criteria in developing and advancing a country is the success of its government to set up a well-organized government. Speaking of well-organized government, there are some elements within it; which are bureaucratic reformation and good governance. Those elements are also the main concept for the national and state improvement of Indonesia.

Reflecting at the history of bureaucracy structuring in Indonesia, it’s still remain, nonetheless, a serious issue for Indonesia. Indiscipline civil servants, poor public service, lack of transparency, and corrupt government officials are some issues that the government has to deal with from one period to another. Those issues have rather become a great challenge for each period of leadership that needs to be solved.

The momentum for reformation in Indonesia came in 1998 which was marked by the fall of Soeharto’s regime, which was well-known for its corruptive and authoritarian government, and it became a great opportunity for Indonesia to develop a democratic government that ensures discretion for its people. In this new era, many concepts came up -which the point is- to improve the bureaucracy and governance of Indonesia, creating a better law system and keeping the country clean from corruptions; thus, in this era many legal products appeared, such as Act Number 31 Year 1999 regarding Eradication of Corruption Crime which was amended with Act Number 20 Year 2001 regarding Eradication of Corruption Crime and also Act Number 28 Year 1999 regarding State Enforcement Free and Clean From Corruption, Collusion, and Nepotism. These are some legal products that were enacted during the beginning of reformation era which were expected to improve Indonesia’s condition and creating a clean and accountable government. Also in this era, Corruption Eradication Commission was established, which its main purpose is to solve the corruption issue in Indonesia.

The reformation era, which has been running for 14 years, is still unable to solve the issues that have been mentioned before. Legal products and various concepts that came up at the beginning of this era haven’t been applied optimally, the good governance principle which was stated in Act Number 28 Year 1999 also hasn’t been applied effectively, law enforcement also became a problem that’s always criticized and considered poorly by the people of Indonesia and world. These issues occurred, presumably, due to the lack of leadership in Indonesia during the reformation era; not only from the president himself, but also from his subordinates. The condition became worse due to poor performance of our legislative body, which was followed by the poor image of our law enforcer, completed the whole commotion.

Facing a situation like this, Indonesia has to analyze and solve these problems immediately as soon as possible to ensure a better state life for its people. The spirit that appeared at the beginning of the reformation has to be revived. The question now, is that whether we have to return to the starting point itself or not in order to solve these issues. To answer that, we have to analyze and identify the current issues. First, the thing that must be taken into account is that the leader of Indonesia must have a strong will and commitment; therefore, the leader has to be sure of him/herself and the people around him/her, that they are “clean”. Second, is to create or revise the existing laws/rules that related to law enforcing and good governing and also to ensure that these rules are applied effectively. Third, is to create a strong and effective government which consisted of people with high integrity. Fourth, is to support law enforcement and to improve law enforcement institutions. These four basic points could be considered as the answer for law enforcement issue in Indonesia due to its corruptive government officials and poor performance.

Application of Effective Good Governance

The poor performance of government due to corruptions and poor public service are an issue that’s not only faced by Indonesia, but also by other countries; Korea and China could be taken as an example, from which we’ll examine the actions they have taken to apply a good governance. South Korea, which nowadays we can see as an advance industrial country, cannot be separated from the success of administrative reformation that has been conducted from 1980 up until now. General Chun Doo Wan as the fifth President of Republic of Korea had put a number of pillars for administrative reformation through Civil Servant Ethics Act, Social Purification Movement, Civil Servant Consciousness Reform Movement, Retired Civil Servant Employment Control, Civil Servant Property Registration, and Civil Servant Gifts Control.

The administrative reformation itself was carried as a primary national politic agenda during the period of Rho Taw Woo (1988-1993) by conducting deregulation and simplification, central government restructuration, strengthening administrative reformation commission, and transparency to public. During the period of Kim Young Sam (1993-1998), administrative reformation was carried by establishing Presidential Administrative Renovation Commission and creating a government that is clean and trim, but strong, democratic, efficient, and close to public by reforming the government administration procedure. During the period of President Kim Dae Jung (1998-2003), administrative reformation in South Korea was carried on through the motto of “People’s Government”. Restructuration of central government was conducted by diminishing 16 offices, 74 bureaus, 136 departments, and 146 government commissions. As much as 16% of civil servant was diminished until 2001.

Next, President Rho Moo Hyun since 2003 focused the administrative reformation on participatory government by forming Reform the Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization movement. In the last phase, administrative reformation was conducted by increasing the autonomy of local government and application of communication and information technology in governing and public service (e-government).

Furthermore, we can see China that conducted bureaucracy reformation in order to create good governance. Deng Xiaoping, in 1982, proclaimed administrative reformation as backbone for nation’s advancement. In his speech in front of national congress of Communist Party in 1982, Deng stated “Streamlining organization is a matter of great importance. In fact, it constitutes a revolution. If we fail to carry out this revolution, if we let the present over-staffed and overlapping party and state organization stay as they are, without clearly defined duties, and with many incompetent, irresponsible, lethargic, undereducated, and inefficient staff member, we ourselves will not be satisfied and we will not have the support of lower cadre, much less of the people.” What was stated by Deng is not merely a political rhetoric, because in 1983 the numbers of ministry, department, and other government institution were trimmed from 100 to 61. As many as 30.000 cadres, who were active in bureaucracy, were pensioned off early.

China economic development that we witness nowadays didn’t come in a sudden, but very affected by administrative reformation that was carried by Deng Xiaoping in 1982, 1988, and 1992. The purpose and focus of administrative reformation in China is to transform the government’s function and to create an administrative structure which is more responsive in economic development. In other words, administrative reformation in China is focusing on an efficient government through restructuration and bureaucracy depoliticization and administration career away from political interest. The whole setting of administrative reformation in China and South Korea shows that transformation to industrial country is highly determined by the commitment and competence for carrying an administrative reformation. Even more, administrative reformation is a prerequisite for the success of the transformation itself.

Then, what should Indonesia do to achieve such success as those two countries have done in creating a well-organized government ? As it has been mentioned before, that Indonesia had the momentum to create a great change in 1998 when the reformation era begun. Act Number 28 Year 1999 also stated the principles for good governance in its article number 3; those principles are: the principle of legal certainty, the principle of orderly organization of the state, the principle of public interest, the principle of openness, the principle of proportionality, the principle of professionalism, and the principle of accountability.

Those principles could be applied in real life practice to fix the system that hasn’t been running properly as it should have been, and we will discuss some of them. The principle of legal certainty could become an essential instrument to be applied if an improvement is done for legal institutions from the police force, prosecutors, Corruption Eradication Commission, and other institutions. This action could be followed by improving the quality of law enforcer’s integrity and recruitment pattern. The principle of public interest, it has to become the government’s concern because the essence is that government is a public servant, therefore all the policies that are issued by government must in accordance with public interest. The principle of openness, this principle could be used as a measure on how government can guarantee transparency on matters that need to be known by the public, so that a trust can be built and public can actively monitor the government itself. The principle of professionalism becomes a principle that cannot be ignored in creating a good government. Performance, quality, and dedication of government officials must also become a main concern, followed by principle of accountability which ensures government must prove itself worthy and accountable to become public servant and do its work.

Those seven principles are considered to be a strong foundation to improve Indonesia’s governing system, to create prosperity within its people and nation if it’s conducted properly and monitored on its application, evaluation on its conduct, and assessment on the achievement of target that has been set by the government, and also to involve the public in monitoring the government’s performance in applying those principles. On the other side, Indonesia must open itself to the success of China and South Korea for not hesitating in performing bureaucracy improvement, and apply it in accordance to the current condition in Indonesia.

There’s many hope for Indonesia to bring prosperity to its people and advance the nation’s condition by carrying out those improvements with optimism and determination.

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