Jokowi urges civil servants to lead the way

JAKARTA. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has called on civil servants across the country to speed up bureaucratic reform and act as role models for change.

The President, who has been pushing for a "mental revolution" to transform the country’s inefficient bureaucracy into an effective tool, made the remarks during a flag ceremony to commemorate the Indonesian Civil Servants Corp's (Korpri) 43th anniversary at the National Monument (Monas) on Monday morning.

"Let me remind all of you Korpri members that you should be teachers [and] role models to introduce changes expected by the people. I also want to remind you all to create a clean and competent bureaucracy able to serve the people even faster," said Jokowi in his speech in front of more than 10,000 civil servant event-attenders.

Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi, who was among several ministers at the ceremony, said mental revolution has three focuses: to change the mindset from priyayi (aristocratic) bureaucrats into bureaucrats who serve the public, to create lean organizational structures and to improve working culture.

"We must show this in our service to the public. We need to ensure the purpose of civil servants as the representatives of the government is to serve the people," he told reporters after the ceremony.

Yuddy also reminded civil servants and all central and local government institutions to comply with his three recent circulars banning them from leading lavish lifestyles and instructing them to make savings from petty costs that people often forget, including the use of electricity for lighting and air conditioning.

In his circulars, Yuddy also banned government employees from throwing lavish parties or partaking in other wasteful spending in order to “show empathy for the people”, and from renting meeting halls or other venues, including resorts and villas, for holding official functions or meetings.

The minister even urged them to serve traditional Indonesian street snacks, like steamed peanuts and fried cassava, as well as local fruit, at official events and meetings “to boost the production of national commodities and to ensure food security”. (Ina Parlina)