Jusuf Kalla Rejects IPDN's Proposal To Disband In Today's Memory, September 8, 2015

Portrait of the inauguration of the IPDN preja to serve in the Indonesian bureaucracy. (ANTARA)

JAKARTA Memories of today, nine years ago, September 8, 2015, Vice President Jusuf Kalla (JK) rejected the proposal of the Institute of Domestic Administration (IPDN) to be dissolved. He considers that IPDN is still needed to educate bureaucratic candidates so that governance is maintained.

Previously, there was a protest that IPDN would be dispersed everywhere. The issue arose because of a statement from the Governor of DKI Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok). He feels that there is nothing special about IPDN graduates so far.

Schools for prospective government employees have existed since the Dutch colonial era. OSVIA, his name. The school became a Dutch lecture to obtain qualified civil servants. The Bumiputras also competed to be able to enter there.

This condition was not much different when Indonesia was independent. Schools that specifically attract government bureaucrats are maintained and become a fight. However, the schools changed their names. Later in 1992 the school was widely known as the Domestic Government High School (STPDN).

The peak of STPDN has also increased to one with the Institute of Government Sciences (IIP) in 2003. The merger resulted in IPDN. The goal is clear so that efforts to produce quality bureaucrats. A bureaucrat who can assist the government in serving the community well.

The Governor of DKI Jakarta, Ahok disagrees with the existing narrative. Images of IPDN graduates can be superior in governance, he considers it nonsense. Their performance is not special. Some of the corrupt too.

Ahok assessed that they often jointly bribe prosecutors or related inspectorates so as not to be examined. Ahok considered this condition to be wrong. Not to mention, the IPDN tradition which often sees seniority that is familiar with violence.

Ahok revealed that in the modern era of supply to become a Civil Servant (PNS), it does not have to be from IPDN. Those from private companies, police, TNI, and undergraduate degrees can also do it. He also asked President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to dissolve the IPDN.

"I want to ask, public services to the Indonesian people so far are all PTSP (One Stop Integrated Service), is that right? Who is the sub-district head first? Alumni (IPDN). Who fights, how many people die at IPDN? I want to ask. Now I ask, in Jakarta, is IPDN holding PTSP not now??

"No, but it's better. In the ASN Law there are 2, there are contract employees and there are civil servants. So, if you say that, why don't you say that your sustenance was taken? Are IPDN children definitely better than non-IPDN children? Not really. For example, examples of glorifying STPDN or IPDN of all kinds, I want to ask whether our republic is progressing today with dollars like that? So far, who do I want to ask? " explained Ahok as quoted on the coverage page 6.com, September 8, 2015.

Ahok's proposal became a polemic. There are those who support it. There are also those who refuse. The rejection even emerged from the Vice President, Jusuf Kalla on September 8, 2015. He assessed that IPDN is still needed to educate potential bureaucrats.

He firmly rejected the proposal of IPDN to be disbanded. All because the work as bureaucrats must have a special school. He emphasized that if something was wrong related to violence in IPDN, then the violence was eliminated. Not IPDN disbanded.

"We still need bureaucratic education for praja, IPDN. Especially for the preja, sub-district head, village head, there must be education. If so, it is not the IPDN that has been disbanded, but the element of violence that must be eliminated," said JK as quoted by the CNN Indonesia page, September 8, 2015.