Blaming the government

In my recent interactions with an economist through a social media site, I learnt two things.

1) Blaming the government is easy

2) If you blame the government, you’ll get more people to back you up compared to ‘government-supporters’.

I am not an Indonesian government official. Indeed, I never worked in Indonesia. But my parents are retired government officials and my brother is a government official (and I am so proud of being part of this ‘government official’ or PNS family). Given this background, I might have some sort of bias.

But I believe in these principles.

• You can critique, but you need to give alternative solutions.
• You can offer solutions if you have evidence to support your recommendations. Otherwise, keep silent.
• ‘Careless generalisation’ is a sin. Just because one government policy fails or one government official is engaged in corruption, it doesnt mean that allgovernment’s policies are bad and all government officials are involved in corruption. Some even tend to (wrongly) conclude that we dont need the government.
• Using the word ‘but’ is a good thing. This, at least, makes you appreciate the good thing before commenting on the bad thing. Need an example? Indonesia has achieved significant progress in education as indicated by universal primary education. But the quality of education remains an issue…
• ‘Who is sitting in the government’ might matter, but I guess the problem in Indonesia is also the system. Changing the president or minister wont necessarily lead to a better governance. This reminds me of my husband’s story. He was told by his workmate “if you think your current boss is bad, you normally get a worse boss in the future”. Well, I disagree with many decisions by the current government under the leadership of SBY, but if you think the next president will be better than him and make Indonesia better, think again.
• Anyway, who is the government? There are many heads in the government which also mean there are different opinions among them. Be specific and discuss the policy rather than the individual at times are more useful.

Clearly, this is an emotional post rather than an evidence-based one.

At least, I dont blame the government. On solutions, see this post (soon to be published by the Jakarta Post).

My concern on national priorities has been more or less addressed by Trade Minister Mari Pangestu in here.

See, if we listen or interact more with the government officials (such as the minister), chances are the government (whoever they are) might not be as  bad as we thought they were.

So, shall we move beyond the blame game?