Civil servants can play unifying role for Indonesia: VP

Jakarta. A civil servant must be a factor unifying the people. Vice President Jusuf Kalla stated this in a meeting on National Bureaucratic Reform held today at his office.

Civil servants particularly in local governments, he added, when reaching a certain post or level should be redeployed into other regions.

“Such redeployment will make them able to share best practices and information from their previous posts,” he said, adding that such an effort is believed to keep civil servants innovating.

To support the idea, Mr Kalla said, it needs re-orientation for civil servants, as well as proper discipline and remuneration system.

Speaking about bureaucratic reform, he continued, is not merely talking about how to increase the civil servants’ income, but also how to make those officials contribute more in raising national income.

The Vice President then wished that the existing bureaucratic lines shall be cut down.

“If you want to improve the system and the structure within bureaucracy, first of all you need to shorten the lines of those making policy decisions. You need to reduce the number of echelon officials as well,” he affirmed.

Concluding the meeting, Mr Kalla underscored things needed for the reform, some of which are the improved civil servant national system and the review of the existing government structure.

“The slowing bureaucracy we experience nowadays is not due to incapable civil servants, but due to the long lines of bureaucracy,” he said.

Attending the meeting were Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Yuddy Chrisnandi, State Secretary Pratikno, and Minister of National Development Planning Agency Sofyan Djalil.