Governance in Indonesia: Some Comments

Abstract

Governance is often a difficult process. Proper governance--whether of a nation or of a unit such as a government department or company or school--ideally involves, first, the formulation of an overall strategy of operations, followed by the translation of the broad strategy into specific policies and decisions, and then the implementation of the decisions through selected activities. This process, even when things go smoothly, is often difficult. But to complicate things, in practice the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Leaders frequently find it hard to muster support for their plans, and circumstances are often change in startling ways as well when financial or physical hurricanes or tsunamis strike a nation out of the blue. So often, the new government program that seemed so well-suited to the outlook in January can be in trouble by February and in need of substantial revision by March. Thus another part of the art of effective governance is the ability to manage with an eye to both the long-term and the short-term at the same time. This is a paper with some thoughts about the governance of Indonesia. The topic of the governance of a nation of over 220 million people, the fourth largest in the world, is one of great complexity. The topic is vast. However the aim of this paper is modest. The aim is merely to first, outline just a few of the main strategic issues of governance in Indonesia, and second, to outline some options for change.