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Jokowi’s disruption of absurd design for bureaucratic reform
Jokowi ignored the grand design and has his own strategy. For his first five years he emphasized a change in the mentality of his bureaucracy. The grand design placed this as an outcome, he made it a foundation stone on which to build reform. It has been a battle but we can see success in most entities and great success in a few.
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Jokowi ignored the grand design and has his own strategy. For his first five years he emphasized a change in the mentality of his bureaucracy. The grand design placed this as an outcome, he made it a foundation stone on which to build reform. It has been a battle but we can see success in most entities and great success in a few. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
I
n 1997, Indonesia passed a long-term plan that lasted less than one year. In 1998, the fiscal crisis and the downfall of Soeharto made the plan both useless and contrary to the demands of the Reform Era.
Despite such outstanding proof that the type of long-term planning was most likely useless, the 2004 Law on planning called for long-term planning every 20 years for a 20-year period. And the first period would be from 2005 to 2025. This plan was endorsed in 2006, and required further planning within sectors.
The bureaucratic reform “grand design” was prepared in 2010 and was for the period of 2005 until 2025. Magic! A plan in 2010 for the period starting in 2005! The dates of this plan had nothing to do with either urgency or reasonable planning horizons for implementing reforms.
The 2010 bureaucratic reform grand design starts well. It says (my translation) “bureaucratic reform requires rearranging the processes of the bureaucracy from top to bottom, making breakthroughs though innovation […] realistic and genuine […] out of the box thinking, changing the paradigm, with business not as usual [...]” These are good words.
The plan was divided into five-year slices. The plan from 2010 to 2014 was to create a clean government free from corruption, improve public services and improve capacity and accountability.
Since we have not gotten there in 2019, was that a failure to implement the plan, or was there something wrong with the plan?
Well, it was a failure of both from 2010 to 2014, but after that the plan was largely ignored, for good reason.
