Jakarta – At least 1732 state civil servants from a number of departments are still members or heads of political parties. This violates Government Regulation Number 13/1999 on State Civil Servants which is an enhancement of Government Regulation Number 5/1999. According to the regulation, civil servants who become members or heads of political parties must resign as civil servants.

This [problem] was aired by the head of the Department of State Civil Servants, Hardijanto, in Jakarta on Tuesday December 23 after elaborating on the results of the re-registration of civil servants. Earlier, the State Minister for the Empowerment of State Bodies, Feisal Tamin, had requested that the Department of State Civil Servants dismiss civil servants in a number of departments who have become members or heads of political parties.

However when conformation on the matter was sought from Hardijanto, he admitted that up until this time not one civil servant who had joined a political party had been dismissed. “We do not have the authority to dismiss them. The party which has the right to dismiss civil servants is the official who promoted them, such as a governor or the home affairs minister, except where we get delegated [the authority] based on a presidential decree or there is legislation which regulates the matter”, he said.

Hardijanto added that up until this time, the Department of State Civil Servants has only been reprimanding civil servants who have become members of political parties. “In the end we reminded all civil service bodies [that they must] dismiss their subordinates if they become members or leaders of political parties, [that was] on December 5. However, until now there has been no response”, he said. (K10)

[Translated by James Balowski.]