Indonesia, Yes We Can!

In hope we can believe in....

National Intelligence Council's Global Trends 2025 report:
---------------------------------------------------------

Indonesia, Turkey and a post-clerically run Iran—states that are predominantly Islamic, but which fall outside the Arab core—appear well-situated for growing international roles.

Indonesia’s performance will depend upon whether it can replicate its success at political reform with measures to spur the economy. In the past decade, Indonesians have transformed their once-authoritarian country into a democracy, turning the vast archipelago into a place of relative calm where support for moderate political solutions is strong, separatist movements are largely fading away, and terrorists, finding little public support, are increasingly found and arrested. With abundant natural resources and a large population of potential consumers (it is the world’s fourth most populous country), Indonesia could rise economically if its elected leaders take steps to improve the investment climate, including strengthening the legal system, improving the regulatory framework, reforming the financial sector, reducing fuel and food subsidies, and generally lowering the cost of doing business.

National Intelligence Council's Global Trends 2025 report
http://www.dni.gov/nic/PDF_2025/2025_Global_Trends_Final_Report.pdf

Bureaucracy Reform for a Better Indonesia

In order to improve performance and fight against corruption, Indonesian government has reformed its bureaucracy. As one can see, the reform has been started from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) as one of the largest and most influential government institution. In the late of 2002, Directorate General of Taxation (DGT) as one of the units in MoF introduced a new system and opened modern tax offices dealing with taxpayers. In the mean time, MoF proposed three bills to amend the national financial management to parliament and passed in 2003. Immediately after MoF gained its full mandate from president and parliament, and as the pilot project in DGT showed an increase in tax revenue collection, MoF enlarged the scope of modern tax offices and reformed the tax court system.


In the mid of 2004, MoF started the comprehensive bureaucracy reform involved its 62,000 employees within 12 directorate generals. The action focused on three pillars of reform as: organizational transformation, business process improvement, and human resource development. In order to transform the organization and shape the function, it has changed several units, created tens, and merged few. Under business process improvement, it has produced almost 7,000 standard operating procedures as the public service guidance to omit red tape practices. Meanwhile, it stimulated employee to be well-perform by introduced a better reward and punishment system. Then, from 2007, MoF provided better salary to increase employee’s welfare and prevent moral hazard. Overall, the whole process has changed fundamentally the way of business in MoF from a closed and costly institution to an open and efficient one.


As one can see, there are several results of the reform. During in 2008, the increasing of tax revenue collection reached 120% above the target. For 2009 budget, MoF has reached the projection of 1,000 trillion rupiahs. In addition, public acknowledged better performance in MoF as the higher of customer’s satisfaction index and the lower corruption index showed in latest surveys.


In conclusion, the success story of bureaucracy reform in MoF has inspired Indonesian people to continue the reform process. Nowadays, the reform involves also several government agencies and gradually changes Indonesia become a better and prosperous country.

Potret Indonesia: CIA Factbook

Sebetulnya aku sudah lama tahu bahwa CIA punya data-data lengkap tentang setiap negara di dunia. Semacam profilling, pemetaan untuk kepentingan politik luar negeri Paman Sam. Aku tidak terlalu tertarik ,membaca detail.

Sampai tiba saatnya aku ingin membuat presentasi tentang Indonesia. Mulailah kuburu informasi tentang negeri kita.

Ke portal negara aku dapat http://www.indonesia.go.id/id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=1722.

Ke BPS, http://www.bps.go.id/pubs/.

Hasilnya tidak memuaskan.

Akhirnya aku meneruskan pencarian ke situs luar negeri. Dapatlah beberapa data dari ADB, IMF dan World Bank. Namun yang membuat aku kaget adalah saat membaca teliti tentang potret Indonesia di https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/id.html.
Data yang disajikan amat gamblang dan update terakhir bulan ini.

Walaupun aku tidak setuju 100% terhadap isinya, statement tentang Indonesia, namun aku salut pada penyajian informasinya.

Atau aku saja yang naif, tidak menemukan data yang terbaru dan gampang diakses dari situs dalam negeri? Mohon pencerahan dari kawan-kawan semua.

Namun sebagai hikmah yang bisa datang dari mana saja, ada baiknya kita jadikan pelajaran. Bahwa kecintaan kita terhadap bangsa ini harus terwujud dalam hal-hal yang mungkin kelihatan kecil Ya, seperti data yang lengkap tentang siapa kita sebenarnya.

Seperti kata pepatah, tak kenal maka tak sayang....

Hm, lecutan buatku juga sebagai anak muda Indonesia....

Kemenangan Barack Husein Obama: Yes We Can!

Kemenangan Obama, sesuai prediksi penulis dalam situs ini, akhirnya terjadi.

Obama meraih 333 electoral votes dari minimum 270 yang disyaratkan. Total kemenangan nasional 51% versus 48% yang diperoleh McCain. Hebatnya lagi, Obama menerima sumbangan terbesar kemenangannya justru dari negara bagian yang selama ini menjadi basis kuat Republikan seperti Florida (tempat dimana Al Gore kalah melawan Bush), Ohio dan beberapa negara benteng Republik di masa lalu.

Semoga pemilu yang paling antusias diikuti pemilih sepanjang 100 tahun sejarah AS ini, akan membawa angin segar perubahan bagi AS dan dunia termasuk Indonesia, negeri yang pernah didiami oleh Obama di masa kecilnya.

Semoga angin segar perubahan tersebut juga menerpa Indonesia, sehingga pada Pemilu 2009 nanti, akan terpilih pemimpin muda dan segar dengan ide perbaikannya.

Sekali lagi, Change we need! In change, we believe!
Perubahan kita inginkan, dan pada perubahan kita yakin!