Jakarta – The DPR RI said that the position auction policy mandated by the Regulation of the Minister for Empowerment of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform concerning Procedures for Openly Filling High Leadership Positions in Government Agencies* is illegal and has many weaknesses. The DPR is also planning to immediately revise these regulations. However, PATTIRO suspects that the parliament’s plan is just an attempt to re-politicize strategic positions in various government agencies, including at the regional level. “This is related to the implementation of simultaneous regional head elections (Pilkada) which will be held next December. “The DPR is trying to pull bureaucracy back into the political arena of winning regional elections,” said PATTIRO Executive Director Sad Dian Utomo.
Sad Dian explained that the revision of the regulations regarding open position auctions or promotions would only open up opportunities for regional head candidates to commit various frauds in the implementation of the regional elections. One fraud that is very likely to be committed if the position auction policy is revised is that candidates will attract government employees to become their success team during the regional elections. “The lure is none other than promotion, just like before. “Well, if this happens again, the bureaucratic reform that the government has been touting so far will just be empty talk,” he stressed.
Apart from that, Sad Dian said, regional officials who will be elected through a political transaction process have a tendency to put the interests of the people second. “They will only work on orders from their superiors who awarded them the position. Their goal in working is not to please the people but to please their superiors. “The interests of the community will be number one for them,” concluded Sad Dian.
Sad Dian explained that there was actually no reason for DPR members to revise the position auction policy. He said that the interruption of the cadre formation process for civil servants, which was called a weakness by DPR members, was unreasonable. “Strategic positions in government are not positions that someone occupies based on age level. The most important thing is skills and abilities. “After all, position auctions can still accommodate cadre formation by regulating job auction requirements such as rank,” he added.
He added that the main essence of passing this policy is to get the best candidates for government officials who have the ability and skills to carry out their duties, and a person’s age does not guarantee any of that. Sad Dian admitted that although this policy still needs to be perfected, the selection process is still better compared to the assessment which is only carried out by the Position and Rank Advisory Body. “Even though we cannot be sure whether the performance of officials elected through the position auction mechanism will be better, at least this provides wider opportunities to get the best candidates for office. “So we weren’t just chosen based on seniority,” said Sad Dian.
Sad Dian believes that the existence of a position auction policy is very important to support the creation of good governance. Therefore, it is very important for the government to immediately complete discussions on government regulations governing this policy. “So that better governance can be created, and so that council members no longer call this policy illegal, the government should immediately complete discussions on the PP which regulates the position auction policy and ratify it as quickly as possible,” he stressed.
This article was published in Rakyat Merdeka Online (RMOL) with the title Rencana DPR Merevisi Kebijakan Lelang Jabatan Berbau Politis.
