Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Bureaucratic reform in Indonesia really depends on the ruling leaders. In other words, any good system implemented still depends on the officials who lead the institution or department.

According to former Head of Fiscal Policy Agency, Dr. Anggito Abimanyu, the condition can be seen in the bureaucratic reform at Ministry of Finance. When led by former Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, the first echelon officials were prohibited from having double positions, including the position of commissioner of State Owned Enterprises. The focus is on structural reform in Directorate General of Taxation, Customs, Treasury and State Assets, which was along with the formation of Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF).

Meanwhile, according to Anggito, now there is separation of bureaucratic reforms in some units. "In fact, the policy is actually not a priority of taxation reform. I don’t know whether the prohibition to play golf still prevails or not," Anggito said at the launching of his book 'Refleksi dan Gagasan Kebijakan Fiskal' (Reflection and Ideas on Fiscal Policy), held at the Auditorium of Master of Management UGM, Wednesday (25/5).

In the 274-page book, Anggito conveys that bureaucratic reform under the leadership that is honest, decisive, and visionary is an important requirement in changing the mindset of bureaucrats. Which often disrupts is ewuh pekewuh (reluctant to take action) culture and comfort zone. This causes human resources who are brave to take decisions and are visionary get eliminated or transferred. "Past experiences such as BLBI (Liquidity Supports of Bank Indonesia), the crisis as well as the aggressiveness of supervisors such as KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission), BPK (Supreme Audit Board) and prosecutors caused delays in decision making," Anggito who is currently Director of Economics and Business Research (P2EB) of UGM said.

Anggito assessed that taxation reform needs to be improved. The emergence of some problems, such as tax mafia and Gayus cases as well as other problems, such as low income of individual Income Tax (Pph) make the need to continue the tax reform as an important issue. In addition, the biggest challenge to restore the reputation and public confidence to taxation institutions has not still been fulfilled. "In levying taxes, some things need to be considered to fit with other objectives, namely encouraging investment," Anggito said.

Anggito further suggested several other topics which are also interesting in his book, among others, the phenomenon of Capital Inflow and Inflation, Renegotiation of ACFTA, IPO Decision of PT Krakatau Steel, Increase of Fuel Price, Newmont Divestment, Electricity Subsidies, Century Bank and Indonesia's position in G-20.

UII Rector, Prof. Dr. Edy Suandi Hamid, M.Ec., as the discussant assessed that Anggito Abimanyu’s writing, both when still in the bureaucracy and on campus, is consistently polite and not afraid of opposing other economists. "His writing is not patronizing and polite. See and compare Anggito’s writing while still in power and in the campus, it remains critical and polite," Edy said.

The book is a collection of Anggito’s writings about economy, particularly financial and fiscal. Almost all the writings in this book have been published in mass media and reproduced. Introduction of the book was written by a scholar who served as Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council (Wantimpres), Prof. Dr. Emil Salim.

In the event presenting Prof. Dr. Edy Suandi Hamid, M.Ec. (UII Rector) and Wisnu Nugroho (reporter) as discussants was also carried out the hand over of books and CDs to Prof. Dr. Sukanto Reksohadiprodjo, M. Com. (Former Rector and Dean of Faculty of Economics and Business UGM) and Mayor of Yogyakarta, Herry Zudianto symbolically. The event was also enlivened with the performance of Dira Sugandhi singing songs from CD of 'Olah Rasa, Olah Kata, dan Olahraga' produced by Anggito Abimanyu.

Source: Satria/UGM