Mental Revolution : New ministers in the same old limos

Mental Revolution : New ministers in the same old limos Endy M Bayuni  ;   A senior editor of The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA POST, 14 September 2014

                                                                                                                       

                                                      

When the new ministers under president-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo leave shortly after their installment in October, they will be driven in the same old limousines that their predecessors used. One can assume that Jokowi and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla too would be chauffeur-driven in old cars after their inauguration on Oct. 20. You are not what you drive, or what you’re driven in. Never mind what cars they use, Jokowi and his team will bring a new mindset into an administration that is clearly stuck in old conventional ways. Jokowi’s famous “Mental Revolution” will likely begin with his own inner circle, including his ministers and most of all with the bureaucracy. And so it must be. The peaceful revolution had started with the incoming president prevailing in his first fight with the State Secretariat, the government office that looks after presidential affairs, over the plan to replace all the limos for the new incoming ministers. Although he is not yet president, Jokowi has openly said that his ministers would not need the new cars and that they would make do with the existing limos, bought five years ago. The money, he added, would be best spent on his priority social programs. Sudi Silalahi, the current minister who heads the State Secretariat, had rejected the unwanted intrusion, declaring that the money had already been earmarked in the 2014 budget and that the procurement contract had been tendered and the winner picked. In short, he was telling Jokowi: That’s the way we do things. Put up and shut up. On Thursday, Sudi relented. The procurement contract, worth Rp 94 billion (US$8.5 million), was cancelled. Too bad for Mercedes Benz and tough luck for those vying for Cabinet posts for the perks more than for the dedication for the work that comes with the job. Here is another reason for them to not join Jokowi’s Cabinet: His meetings will likely be dry, without lavish lunches or dinners. As incoming president, Jokowi had been privy to the details of the 2015 budget prepared by the outgoing administration and was aghast at finding a Rp 18 trillion item for “meetings of ministries”. “We can meet without food and drink,” Jokowi remarked, adding that he would reallocate this money for higher priority social programs. The battle with the bureaucracy marks the first of many that Jokowi will likely face once he moves into the Presidential Palace. Not everyone is on board with his idea of revolutionizing their way of thinking and doing, least of all the bureaucracy. The money saved from the new limo procurement may seem insignificant and one could even argue that the ministers, as well as the president and his deputy, deserve to be driven in new limos. It is a small cost to pay for the prestige of the office — so the argument goes. But that is precisely where they are wrong. They fail to understand the concept of Mental Revolution: that it should begin with reforming your mindset. The bureaucracy, famous for sticking to set procedures and ways of thinking and doing things, is the prime target of the revolution. Most other government institutions have already gone through massive reforms since the end of Soeharto’s dictatorship in 1998. The military and the police have gone the farthest, followed by political institutions like political parties and the House of Representatives. The judiciary, independent of the executive branch, has also gone some way. The bureaucracy, in contrast, has been virtually left untouched. Anyone wondering why the pace of reforms has slowed, stalled or is even backtracking should check out the role played by the bureaucracy. Re-reading Jokowi’s article in Kompas in May elaborating on his “Mental Revolution”, one can sense that the new president intends to fight the mentality that prevails in the country, particularly among those responsible for the running of the government. Fortunately, the incoming president knows how to fight his battles with the bureaucracy from his experience as governor of Jakarta since October 2012 and as mayor of Surakarta in Central Java for the seven previous years. In Jakarta, he introduced meritocracy into the administration, auctioned the positions of chiefs of districts to the best candidates and replaced many of the top echelon officials for failing to keep up with him or to come on board his quiet revolution. He was able to save money by slashing many unnecessary spending items here and there, including the frequent replacements of printer and photocopy machines. His budget efficiencies allowed him to come up with the money needed to launch the Jakarta Health Card system offering universal health care, two months after his inauguration. In contrast, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took years before launching the National Health Care System in January 2014 and even then the government needed five years before the system would become fully operational and truly universal. With Jokowi soon taking charge, we could just see him moving the 2019 deadline forward. All it takes is a change in mindset and some creative ways of managing budgets. But how do you fight the powerful bureaucracy that is bound to put up resistance? That is when Jokowi will turn to public opinion. As he argued in his Kompas article, the Mental Revolution can only take place if everyone is on board. ●