Reform Minister: We Must Go Digital If We Want Speedy Bureaucratic Reform

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - ADMINISTRATIVE and Bureaucratic Reform (PAN-RB) Minister Abdullah Azwar Anas likened himself to a soccer player entering the game in the second half. “Seventeen minutes into the play and got so much to do,” the former Banyuwangi regent told Tempo on February 2.

Azwar was appointed PAN-RB minister on September 7, 2022, after the previous minister, Tjahjo Kumolo, passed away due to illness. Azwar has less than two years to finalize his ministry’s agenda and he aims to achieve this through digitalizing public services in state institutions.  During the interview, Azwar scurried back and forth between three departments in his Sudirman office to participate in meetings with various parties including representatives from Bank Mandiri.

Works are underway at the PAN-RB ministry to digitalize public services. Azwar is certain that electronic governance can help reduce corruption and speed up government services. To accelerate digitalization, the government is set to simultaneously launch digital public service malls across more than 100 cities/regencies in May. Azwar Anas said his priority areas were population, civil registration, and health care services.

What is your main job as the PAN-RB minister at the end of President Jokowi’s tenure? 

One of our problems has always been services. Meanwhile, bureaucracy is a state instrument to tackle a myriad of matters. And we need to put our bureaucracy in order. It needs to be reformed. But if we want speedy reform, it must go hand in hand with digitalization which is already in full swing in many countries. But digitalization may disrupt many things including employment. In the bureaucracy, we need more employees whereas (digitalized countries) employ fewer people.

What is the target?

Bureaucratic reform. Our current reform program has four focused themes, namely poverty alleviation, increased investment, digitalization of administrations, and acceleration in implementing the president’s priorities. President’s priorities consist of two points: procurement of local products via e-catalog and inflation control. Why is Indonesia good (at controlling) inflation? Because of the participation of the regions. We hold Zoom meetings almost every week to monitor inflation in cities/regencies as well as e-catalog procurements. This is what you call “impactful reform.”

We are preparing to digitalize the electronic-based government system or e-government (SPBE) but I cannot do it alone. So, we divide (tasks) in accordance with the presidential regulation. The ministries under the coordinating ministry will all be digitalized.

What does digitalization look like?

Our priority here is related to integrating reporting systems. We had a meeting at the political, legal, and security affairs coordinating ministry a few days ago. Currently, (different departments) use their own systems making data exchange and case handling not optimal. They cannot benefit from a connected system yet. It’s another story in the maritime affairs and investment coordinating ministry. We hope that this integration project will run well. Our short-term target is to launch nationwide digital public service malls (MPP) on May 20 at the latest.

How many malls are there at the moment?

We currently have 103 malls (across the country). The first MPP of the country in Banyuwangi (East Java) replicated the models of Azerbaijan and Georgia. The mall has so far processed around 300 permits. But people still need to come to the mall. A new challenge in the future is to be able to process them via mobile phone.

What can be accessed via a digital mall?

Priority areas are population, civil registration, and health care services because these are the most needed services of the public. We have pilot projects in several regions that we will replicate for other places. So, in the future, people will not have to fill in their data (date of birth and so on) every time they need to process something. Nor do they need to create different accounts (for digital services). Or they won’t have to go to the MPP unless they want to for recreation.

All services will become digital?

Not all members of the public want to use digital services. We will bridge this gap so they can gradually switch to digital services.

So, what are the benefits for the people?

They can directly access various services. People don’t have to be in Banyuwangi to receive the services in Banyuwangi. The government so far has been unable to provide digital services because of problems in connecting to population and civil record service offices. There needs to be a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for each individual. We are searching for ways to eliminate the need for individual MOUs. Population services at the MPP still take time because the population registration administration’s team on site must still enter data of the people. 

Once it goes digital, the data will be filled in automatically like in the United Kingdom or Singapore. This is politically unpopular but has an impact politically as people are happy with the services. After I implemented the MPP (in Banyuwangi), I got 92 percent of the votes for the second term (as Banyuwangi regent). We are great in our respective areas. Now we are forced to integrate after the president signed the regulation regarding National SPBE Architecture last December.

Why did it take so long for the president to sign the regulation?

The president did not want a new application. But the SPBE isn’t an application. It’s about interoperability and I am advocating it. 

Read the Full Interview in Tempo English Magazine

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