In Indonesia, one of the most highly valued jobs is working for the government. Although the pay is not high, the security and benefits of being a government employee are great. People are guaranteed pensions, don’t have to work very hard, and know they’ll have a job for life. All of my coworkers would like to work for the government, and at the beginning of November they traveled home to Pontianak to take the required test which qualifies them for consideration as a civil servant. The test is like the SAT combined with current government affairs, with a bit about forestry thrown in. (All my coworkers hope to work for the forestry department). I think this is all a bit funny – all of the government offices that I’ve visited are filled with people who have too much time on their hands and not enough work. The result? Terrible inefficiency. In my opinion, the solution is not hiring more government workers, but that seems to be the way things are in this country…
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