Bureaucratic Neutrality and the Regional Elections

Kompas/TOTO SIHONO

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It has been decided that the third simultaneous regional elections will be held on June 27, 2018. From the perspective of democracy, the upcoming simultaneous regional elections will be a continuation of the first regional elections (2015) and the second regional elections (2017). However, different from the previous elections, this year\'s regional elections will be held in 171 regions, which, incidentally, are strategic regions with the largest voter population of the general election.

Therefore, this year\'s regional elections has an extremely strategic meaning for a variety of political powers at the national level. For political parties, the current regional elections are not merely an arena of democratic competition, but also an opprtunity to achieve political prestige that is expected to correlate positively to the nation’s political events in 2019, namely the concurrent legislative and presidential elections.

This is why the 2018 regional elections carry a different nuance than the elections of previous years. Key electoral areas such as West Java, Central Java and East Java will surely become arenas of great struggle among actors directly involved in the elections.

This phenomenon is already being felt during the candidacies and formation of party coalitions ahead of the elections. The din grew louder after the General Elections Commission (KPU) determined the regional head and deputy head candidates who, along with their party backers, undertook various political maneuvers. This can be seen in the hectic dissemination of news on social media concerning immoral videos featuring the candidates and the issue of political dowries.

Moreover, the flip-flopping between potential candidates and the difficulties in building solid coalitions to back candidate pairs paints its own picture. As is usual in regional elections, the candidates and their running mates are expected to go all out in utilizing their political resources a to win the contest.

The obsession with winning frequently leads to measures that violate the agreed rules of the game, such as using bureaucracy to further political interests.

Empirical experiences in a number of regions show the potential to manipulate the bureaucracy in order to strengthen the civil servants’ home base. This tactic is not infrequently used by incumbents, who incidentally have a strong influence in the government bureaucracy, from the provincial level down to the subdistrict level within a region. Other opponents will likely use their own networks to win the regional elections.

As government apparatuses, bureaucrats – in the regional administrations, police, and Indonesian Military (TNI) – should be neutral, independent and impartial, and maintain equal distance from all candidates, even it any personal bonds between them cannot be avoided.

The neutrality of bureaucracy is a major pillar that is vital to elevating public service to its maximum without differentiating between political interests and affiliations. The neutrality of bureaucracy will guarantee that the implementation of the regional elections will be democratic, free and fair, honest, peaceful and of quality, which will avoid the bureaucracy from taking sides.

The question is, can the bureaucracy in the regional administrations, the police and the TNI remain neutral and impartial in the 2018 elections? This question is relevant because of the high solidarity these three bureaucratic institutions feel with the figures among their ranks who are contesting the regional elections. This issue is highly relevant and important, because Indonesia is currently promoting bureaucratic reform in the central and regional administrations.

Bureaucratic neutrality

Bureaucratic neutrality is a critical issue that always emerges with every general and regional election. In a democratic system, the government bureaucracy is not involved in practical politics. Bureaucracy instead places itself in the role of a professional and neutral institution (Asmeron and Reis, 1996).

Bureaucratic neutrality is an important variable for democracy to materialize, because bureaucracy and democracy are interrelated (Etzioni-Halevy, 1985). The democratization that has taken place in Indonesia since 1998 is expected to encourage bureaucratic reform. On the other hand, bureaucratic reform is expected to strengthen the process of democratization in Indonesia. A reformed bureaucracy will be professional, neutral, transparent, accountable, aspirational and accommodating of public interests.

Such a democratic model will affect the relationship between bureaucracy and the public. In the context of the direct regional elections, bureaucratic neutrality in the regional elections will be an important requirement for the democratic and representative election of regional leaders.

In the Indonesian political constellation, the idea of establishing bureaucratic neutrality in various political processes is not easy to realize. Indonesia has a long record of bureaucratic involvement in politics, from the New Order to the current Reform era. Despite the issuance of Law No. 5/2014 on civil apparatuses, many violations still occur in practice, so the bureaucracy in Indonesia is not neutral and professional by default.

Bureaucracy is vulnerable to being used by certain political powers when an incumbent or an influential candidate participates in the regional elections.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, neutrality means: “not engaged on either side, not aligned with a political or ideological grouping, not decided or pronounced as to characteristics”. Neutrality relates to several indicators, such as maintaining distance, not taking sides, not differentiating between existing groups or parties. In other words, neutrality is an objective attitude and shows no partiality for a particular party or political power.

The concept of a modern and rational bureaucracy as applied in many advanced countries is inseparable from Weber’s view that bureaucracy is “a hierarchical organization of officials appointed to carry out certain public objectives. It is institution that carries out the functions and responsibilities of government.” (1947: 50.) Bureaucracy is linked to civil servants or bureaucrats who run the wheels of bureaucracy. In a democratic country, “civil servants devote their lives to the service of the community.” (Gladden, 1956: 17-18.)

Therefore, in their position as professional employees, bureaucrats and civil servants should treat parties or politicians equally, based on a policy of objective judgment. Civil servants implement various government policies without being influenced by or favoring the interests of a particular political party or power. This clearly defines the political neutrality of civil servants (Asmerom and Reis, 1996: 4), that they can express their partisanship for certain political parties as individuals during the general election, but not when carrying out their bureaucratic duties.

Fischer and Lundgren (1975: 459) state that “a modern civil service is defined as a corps of specifically trained, examined and appointed men, independent from political conjuncture, impartial in discharging their services, fully salaried and pensioned by the state and fully employed by it, subject to the hierarchical order in which they move upward according to seniority or merit or a mixture or both.”

From the above description, it is clear that an ideal bureaucracy is not patrimonial and its civil servants can be neutral and objective. In other words, a modern and rational bureaucracy is characterized by civil servants who are able to demonstrate their capacity to work professionally, and as government apparatuses, serve the public and are neutral in political affairs.

In this context, the issue of bureaucratic neutrality is very important to the regional elections, because the Indonesian people want good local governance, the eradication of all forms of manipulation, collusion and corruption, as well as government accountability to the public. More than that, bureaucratic neutrality is expected to be able to guarantee the democratic, honest, free and fair election of regional heads, thereby producing regional leaders who are qualified, credible, capable and acceptable.

R Siti Zuhro

Research Professor, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)