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‘Mental revolution’ yet to get off ground

During his first run for Indonesia’s highest office, one of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s flagship campaign programs was the “mental revolution”, saying that citizens, especially those working in bureaucracy needed to change their mindset from that of the New Order regime

Karina M. Tehusijarana (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, October 23, 2018

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‘Mental revolution’ yet to get off ground

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uring his first run for Indonesia’s highest office, one of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s flagship campaign programs was the “mental revolution”, saying that citizens, especially those working in bureaucracy needed to change their mindset from that of the New Order regime.

But four years into his first term, the program seems to have had few tangible results, despite a slew of activities, including an annual Mental Revolution Real Action Week (PKN), which the President is set to attend on Friday in Manado, North Sulawesi.

Jokowi first unveiled his idea of a “mental revolution” in an op-ed for Kompas newspaper in May 2014.

“Some traditions or cultures that flourished during the repressive era of the New Order still remain, such as corruption, intolerance of differences, greed, selfishness, the tendency to use force to settle matters, law violations and opportunism,” he wrote.

After he came into office, Jokowi signed a presidential instruction creating the National Mental Revolution Movement (GNRM) in 2016, under the coordination of the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister. Among other things, the movement was aimed at improving integrity and transparency among civil servants, simplifying bureaucratic processes and improving interreligious tolerance.

Since then, the ministry has conducted various activities to introduce the program around the country through radio talk shows, contests and creating a special website. The ministry has also created mental revolution task forces in 34 provinces involving over 3,000 members.

The ministry’s deputy for cultural affairs coordination Nyoman Shuida said this year’s annual Mental Revolution PKN would include public discussions, the screening of mental revolution-themed films, and a showcase for public-service innovations.

“We hope that the preparations that we made for the Mental Revolution PKN can have a positive impact and also act as inspiration for the Indonesian people to implement the mental revolution movement together,” Nyoman said in a statement on Saturday.

Despite the many activities, however, many of the problems Jokowi identified in his op-ed persist.

Though Indonesia’s score on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has improved slightly from 34 in 2014 to 37 in 2017, corruption remains rife and the country still ranks below former province Timor Leste.

Civil servants also made up the largest category of individuals investigated by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) from 2014 to 2018, accounting for over 30 percent of graft cases it processed. Transparency International Indonesia’s 2017 Global Corruption Barometer, which polled more than 1,000 respondents in 31 provinces, found that 50 percent of respondents considered civil servants to be the most graft-ridden individuals.

Meanwhile a 2017 Indonesian Ombudsman report on public services found that nine out of 14 ministries have not complied with service standards set out in the 2009 Public Service Law.

The report said 59.04 percent of the 481 public services the Ombudsman inspected had no clear service-quality guarantees, 48.65 percent did not have any complaint-reporting mechanisms, while 52.39 percent did not measure customer satisfaction.

“When people deal with public services in government institutions, civil servants often act like masters or kings, as if they own the institution,” political expert Emrus Sihombing said. “In every government institution there are still civil servants who have not taken the mental revolution that Jokowi wants to heart.”

Hamdi Muluk, political psychologist and former member of the Mental Revolution working group, said lack of institutional support was part of the reason why the program had not yet taken off.

“I don’t think that such a wide-ranging program should just be under a coordinating ministry’s deputy,” he said. “It should be under its own agency such as the [Pancasila body] BPIP.”

He added that the limited budget for the movement also hampered efforts to make it stick.

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