Desire for Optimal Public Service in DIY
If we try to see the general problems that are crucial in Indonesia now, there are various phenomena below. First, events of corruption, collusion and nepotism are recorded as the most corrupt countries in Asia. This practice is so massive that it occurs in all levels, both the executive and other parties. Second, Indonesia still has the lowest Human Development Indicator ranking, ranking 111th in the world in 2004. Third, that the cost of living is felt by the community to be expensive, especially by the majority of the population from rural areas and the urban poor. All of these things can be used as a reflection of the relationship between the implementation of public services in a country. So it is not strange if you often hear in the media about various cases ranging from the difficulty of citizens getting access to services and the poor quality of service by apparatus/agencies in many sectors. While the notion of public service (public) is all forms of public service activities carried out by government agencies and BUMN/BUMD in the form of goods and services in an effort to fulfill community needs and provisions of laws and regulations (SK Menpan 81/1993).
Basic Service Options
As a cliché answer to the issue of strategic public service is an issue that prioritizes and improves the service sector which directly influences and is felt on the welfare of many people. More specifically, we should immediately prioritize several pressing problems, namely issues related to basic services and issues of equity and justice. Of course these choices also depend on conditions, perspectives and partisan commitments of policy makers who determine policy directions. The following three things serve as the basic reference for the policy directions taken into consideration:
- The government believes more in market mechanisms or more in social. In reality, policy makers rarely pay attention to the implementation and impact of this belief. It is often found that the products of policies are unclear, whether they have more social value for the benefit of the people or follow market mechanisms that provide more flexibility for investors and economic progress.
- Are policy makers more towards equity egalitarian (fair and equitable regardless of differences in economic status) or equity libertan (fair according to ability to pay). This consideration is important because it will have an impact on our moral choice of public service. It seems difficult for a public service to fulfill both of these equities simultaneously, the regional government in DIY needs to prioritize which one.
- Technical aspects include infrastructure, the percentage of the population who work formally, the average income of the population in a country, the readiness of human resources, and community cultural factors will also determine it.
If our choice of general reference is on social values, egalitarian equity and takes into account the general conditions in DIY, then basic services (education, health and social welfare) will be a priority for efforts to improve public services. The implementation of the improvement in basic services will be expressed in three main aspects, namely budget allocation, sources of funds and efficiency. In addition, basic services that are classified as "public goods" must protect disadvantaged groups which are manifested in a guarantee of access for every citizen, so the integration between planning and financing
The fact is that countries that are not rich tend to get more health funding from the public, except for Cuba. Rich countries tend to have more health funding sources from the government, except the US. In general, in less wealthy countries there are still problems of difficulty accessing health services and low quality of health services. Meanwhile, basic services, health and education are increasingly shifting to commodity goods that lead to the market. Hospitals and schools towards socio-economic organizations that lead to competition and progress, on the other hand, can distance themselves from aspects of equity and justice.
Problems with health services that are currently still occurring in DIY, in particular, are the validity of the data, difficult services, and socialization of the program. The DIY Regional Government already has a Social Health Insurance Administration Agency that seeks to provide guarantees and improve basic health services for poor and vulnerable citizens. The community hopes that in the implementation there will be no difficulties in obtaining services from health providers. Indeed, sometimes it is difficult to assess the quality of public services because they are in the form of services. Hopefully DIY will have more confidence and commitment to policies based on social values.