People throng one of two desks set up at the Home Ministry’s booth during the Nusantara Expo and Forum 2017 event at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, Jakarta, Sunday (22/10). The event saw overwhelming interest from Jakartans and residents of nearby cities, but the e-ID card services faces several issues, including a disparity in service capability among subdistrict offices.
Citizenship documents in the form of e-ID cards is a basic thing the state must provide its people. It must become a government target.
The main photo of this daily on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017, showed thousands of residents of Jakarta, the capital of this country, standing in line for hours to submit their population data to get their electronic identity cards (e-IDs). The Home Ministry carried out the program at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah.
Jakarta residents even had to use their umbrellas and raincoats to endure the cold and wet condition. One woman was forced to wait from 6 a.m. just to get her queue number. The woman had even waited a year to obtain her e-ID from her subdistrict office, but no invitation had arrived. It is disheartening to see the face of our bureaucracy, although we hear much fanfare about bureaucratic reform.
Amid what is being called the digital revolution, our citizens have to sacrifice several days just to get what they are due: e-ID cards. Can the government not serve its citizens better in obtaining their e-ID cards without causing them distress?
This is something of an irony. The residents had to queue for a long time because the census data, which should have been recorded at subdistrict offices, is not clear. Many residents provided their information, but the e-ID cards were not ready. No explanation was given to the people about the bureaucratic delay in the completing the e-ID cards.
The poor administration of e-ID cards can easily be connected to the corruption of the e-ID card procurement, which has involved a number of important figures in this country. Even though no correlation has been made between the e-ID card case and the fact that the data on seven million citizens had not been recorded, it would be reasonable if the public believes that corruption has led to the poor public services in the provision of e-ID cards. Meanwhile, the political elite who have been accused of being involved in the e-ID card case conveniently remain in their positions.
There is nothing else for President Joko Widodo to do but to order Home Minister Tjahjo Kumoloto settle the missing e-ID card records for those residents who did not receive the card. The President, of course, will be the voice of the people and immediately settle the e-ID card affair.
The Home Ministry, of course, has the census data on the seven million people who have not received their e-ID cards or whose data is missing. We hope the Home Minister will immediately call upon the mayors and regents to resolve problem thoroughly within certain time frame. Do not allow the e-ID card data records to remain unresolved until the regional elections and general elections, so that voting rights becomes a political issue that recurs every five years.
