The Reason ASN Wants To Be Replaced By Robots: Because We Don't Have Money?

Illustration (Photo source: Antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has several times expressed his plan to replace Civil Servants (PNS) or ASN Echelon III and IV with artificial intelligence (AI). Reportedly this mission has already begun to be realized. Then what is the real reason?

The plan to replace ASN with robots was first conveyed by Jokowi in November 2019. "I have also ordered the Menpan and Reburo, echelon III and IV to be replaced with AI. If replaced by AI, our bureaucracy will be faster," he said Thursday, November 28, 2019, quoted by Media Indonesia.

At that time, Jokowi also said that replacing human labor with AI would be included in the omnibus law concept. "I'm sure of that but again this will also depend on the omnibus law to the DPR."

Jokowi explained that the simplification of the bureaucracy must be carried out on a large scale, one of which is to facilitate investment. This is considered important in order to provide a positive stimulus to the Indonesian economy.

"Echelon must be simplified. Echelon I to echelon IV, aren't there too many? I ask for it to be simplified to two levels, replaced with functional positions that respect expertise, respect competence," said Jokowi.

Bureaucratic transformation

Currently, the Head of the Legal, Public Relations and Cooperation Bureau at the State Civil Service Agency (BKN), Satya Pratama, claims that the digital transformation of the bureaucracy is underway. Digitization is carried out in the public service sector as well as in the management of ASN.

"Digitization efforts have been carried out since the last few years. Along with the uncertain situation plus the COVID-19 pandemic, the transformation has been accelerated," Satya told Republika.

The evidence of the digital transformation of the bureaucracy, said Satya, can be seen from the number of ASN which continues to decline. As noted in the ASN Statistics Book (2021), the number of active ASNs this year is 4,081,824 people. It fell drastically when compared to 2015 which reached 4,593,604.

According to Satya, although this digital transformation continues, it does not mean that all ASN will be replaced by robots. "In the future, the formation of civil servants will not be fat, because of the use of IT and the digitization of public services."

The presence of AI can indeed replace several public service tasks that were previously carried out by ASN. For example, regarding data processing that was previously done manually, this can actually be formulated by the system.

Illustration (Photo source: Antara)

"Later on, with the big data that we have, the network that we have, we will decide it will be very fast if we use AI. Don't beat around the bush, don't play around," said Jokowi.

But on the other hand, the replacement of ASN by robots does not reduce their income. "We don't want to cut income from our ASN, what is needed is the speed of making policies, making decisions on the ground, because fast changes, flexible government are needed," said Jokowi. So is this program intensified because the president is not satisfied with the performance of ASN?

ASN Performance

A public policy observer from Trisakti University, Trubus Rahadiansyah, believes that the performance of ASN cannot be beaten evenly. It is true that performance is slow, but it also depends on the ministry and the institution.

"Indeed, there are things that are not fast. But this also depends on the ministry and its institutions. That's where the authority of the minister should be to closely supervise the implementation under him according to his duties and functions," Trubus told VOI.

He gave the example of the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, which was recently "flipped" by the Pertamina Commissioner, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama alias Ahok. "It's an insinuation to the BUMN. That the contracts are not transparent in any way."

"This is actually a weakness in Minister Erick Thohir. Then there is also the weakness of the Pertamina supervisory board. For example, that is an example," said Trubus.

Meanwhile, according to Trubus, the ministry whose performance is fast is the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu). "For example, the finance ministry is fast."

The task of evaluating the ministry's performance, said Trubus, should have been carried out by the Cabinet Secretary, Pramono Anung. But currently, according to Trubus, unfortunately, the Secretariat's job is unclear. "Unfortunately, his job is unclear. Until now it is the most comfortable minister. It should be his job to evaluate the ministry."

Illustration (Photo source: Antara)

The real reason

The performance of ASN according to public policy expert Trubus Rahadiansyah is not the main reason why ASN plans to be replaced by AI. However, "it seems that it is a matter of budget efficiency. So the budget will continue to swell."

Even if he insists on implementing AI in the bureaucracy, according to Trubus, it cannot be applied to all sectors. Only certain sectors can be replaced by a robot.

"Even if it is implemented, only certain sectors can. Not all sectors can be replaced by robots," he said.

According to Trubus, several sectors that can use AI include ID card making services and Samsat services. But if you want to take care of land certificates, for example, you can't. "Because it involves many things, so it can't be replaced by a robot."

In addition to the budget issue, according to Trubus, another reason why this digital transformation of the bureaucracy will soon be realized is because the ASN arrangement is not running optimally. "For example, regarding echelonization, in the end it wasn't finished until now, right, many of them have been functionalized, and what is being asked is not clear," Trubus said.

*Read other information about ASN read another interesting article from Ramdan Febrian Arifin.

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