Yusril: Public Service is the Most Real Face of the State's Presence

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Imipas Yusril Ihza Mahendra at the "Submission of the Opinion of the Indonesian Ombudsman: Public Service Maladministration Assessment 2025" event, in Jakarta, Thursday (29/1/2026). ANTARA/Agatha Olivia Victoria

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Legal, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections Yusril Ihza Mahendra said that in a state of law, public services are not merely administrative functions but the most visible face of the state's presence in the daily lives of its people.

"That is where the law is felt not only in the mere text of the law, but in the queue of services, the clarity of procedures, time certainty, and the attitude of the apparatus in providing services to the public," said Yusril at the presentation of the Indonesian Ombudsman's Opinion: Assessment of Public Service Maladministration in 2025 in Jakarta, Thursday, January 29, reported by ANTARA.

Therefore, Yusril said that the quality of public services is always proportional to the level of public trust in the state.

Yusril said that a country can have good regulations, complete institutions, and large budgets, but if public services are still filled with various practices of maladministration, public confidence will erode and the legitimacy of state power will weaken by itself.

It is said that public services have a very important role in government administration. Law Number 25 of 2009 concerning Public Services states that public services are a series of activities in order to meet the needs of services in accordance with laws and regulations for every citizen for goods, services, and/or administrative services provided by public service providers.

Therefore, he continued, public services are the rights of every citizen and the obligation of the government apparatus.

The main function of public services is to ensure that various basic rights of citizens are met and to provide responsive, transparent, and accountable services.

Yusril said the quality of public services was also directly related to the level of public confidence in government performance.

"In other words, when the bureaucracy is able to provide quality services, people's trust in the government will become better," he said.

In addition, he added that good public services are also a mandate from the constitution in an effort to improve public welfare, as stated in the opening of the 1945 Constitution.

As a democratic country, he continued, the government is obliged to ensure that every service is carried out in accordance with the law and upholds the principles of good governance and accountability to all people.

Yusril said the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia, as a public service supervisory institution, plays a very important role in supervising the provision of public services.

"This shows that the prevention of maladministration has become a legal responsibility that must be upheld and enforced together," he said.