Revitalizing the Diplomacy Machine: The Bureaucratic Reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I will not be taking the second half of the course. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the first half of the class and gained valuable lessons from the Social Network Analysis.

Background

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia is one of the most prominent government institutions in the country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense, is the triumvirate and primary institutions that may run the governance of the state where the President and the Vice President are unable to carry out their duties.[1] As such, the ministry must maintain a high standard of performance.
However, under the “New Order” (Orde Baru) administration of President Suharto, the performance of the government institution was generally disappointing due to ineffective bureaucracy and a high level of corruption. The line of bureaucracy was too thick, costly, and unable to provide good governance and serve society. The Asian Financial Crisis in 1998 followed by months of student and mass protest against President Suharto ended his “New Order” administration, and Indonesia embarked on an era “Reformation” (Reformasi)[2].

Following the national commitment to reform the country under the brand of the Reformasi era, a few progressive ministries, notably the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the Ministry of Finance, led the bureaucratic reform initiative aiming to reform the organizational structures and procedures in order to create an efficient and effective bureaucracy and high-quality public services.[3] The commitment of MoFA to self-reform is then strengthened by the Presidential Decree No. 05/2004 on the Acceleration of Corruption Eradication, the Regulation of the Minister for Empowerment of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform No. 15/2008 on the General Guidelines for Bureaucratic Reform[4], and the Presidential Decree No. 81/2010 on the Grand Design of the National Bureaucratic Reform[5].

After a series of internal review and evaluation, MoFA has applied some changes in the organizational structure. For instance, total reformation of the directorate generals and divisions, a more transparent recruitment system based on merit, and the implementation of the e-government system.

Although MoFa has implemented some significant organizational changes, there are some concerns regarding the overall performance of MoFA as the effective government’s organization, especially about the coordination among the directorates. Some directorates tend to work on specific issues without consulting with other directorates that also handling similar issues. Consequently, the policy outcome given to the Minister is either incoherent or counterproductive. Lack of coordination is even apparent when the policy recommendation provided by the ministry’s research agency tend to be ignored by the directorate whose primary purview is handling such issues. There is a dire need to identify the problem of coordination and communication between diplomats in MoFA.

Research Questions

            This paper addresses the following questions:

1.      What is the current condition regarding the coordination and communication between the directorates and bureaus in the ministry?

2.      What are the possible recommendations to solve the problem?

3.      Are bureaucratic reforms in MoFA effective enough to tackle the lack of coordination? Why or Why not?

Hypothesis

The hypothesis of the research would help to identify the state of communication and coordination among the employees of MoFA and pinpoint the critical groups of directorates who have a meaningful coordination network. This research argues that the lack of coordination appears mostly between directorates under different directorate generals that handle the cross-cutting issues. The coordination within the same directorate generals tends to be smooth because the communication on the same group is mostly insular. As such, it is essential to promote greater information sharing and coordination across the directorate generals. The strict and hierarchic structure of MoFA also causing a lack of coordination and efficiency.

Methodology

This research will collect the data from the survey filled by the employees of MoFA with the assistance of the Bureau of Planning and Organization (BPO) of MoFA. Appropriate survey representation from each directorate is necessary to maintain the strength of the survey data. The survey shall cover the following questions

1. How often do you communicate with this person for information?
2. How often do you communicate with this person for introduction to others within the directorate general?
3. How often do you communicate with this person for introduction to others outside the directorate general?

The survey will also include the following attribute questions:

1. Gender
2. Length of work
3. Level/ranking
4. Directorate
5. Directorate General

According to SNA analytical tools, this research will analyze the organizational network through four centrality measures; degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, and eigenvector centrality. These network measures are essential to finding which actors that have more influence and connection to each other. The research will use the clique analysis to identify the importance of groups or directorate within the network. It will allow us to find the state of coordination between groups. It is interesting to see the role of SNA in analyzing the public sector’s organization, like the government’s ministry, that adopts a more hierarchic structure than the private sector.

Limitations

There are some possible limitations:

1. The approval from the BPO to conduct and assist this survey. Without BPO approval, it is difficult to continue this survey.
2. The appropriate representation of the survey may be difficult to achieve because it depends on the consent and compliance of the employee of MoFA to fill up the survey.
3. Some further qualitative data surveys may be required to provide clear information about the state of coordination. The qualitative data may be acquired through interviews or focus group discussions.

Conclusions

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the analytical tool to identify the pattern of connection among the actors, especially the ties and the relationships, at different levels of analysis.[6] In this context, the SNA is an appropriate tool to pinpoint the state of coordination and communication among Indonesian diplomats in MoFA. SNA enables us to observe the relationship across directorates and the strength of the diplomats’ connections, and it may lead to some organizational changes following the result of the analysis.

References

Breiger, R. (2004). The Analysis of Social Networks. In M. A. Hardy, & A. Bryman, Handbook of Data Analysis (pp. 505-526). London: Sage Publications.

Horhoruw, M., Karippacheril, Tina George, Sutiyono, Dr. Wahyu , & Thomas, Theo. (n.d.). World Bank. Retrieved from Transforming the Public Sector in Indonesia: Delivering Total Reformasi: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTGOVANTICORR/Resources/3035863-1289428746337/Transforming_Public_Sector_Indonesia.pdf

Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia. (2015, April 6). Rencana Strategis 2015-2019. Retrieved from Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia: https://MoFA.go.id/download/L3NpdGVzL3B1c2F0L0RvY3VtZW50cy9BS0lQL0tlbWVudGVyaWFuJTIwTHVhciUyME5lZ2VyaS9SZW5jYW5hJTIwU3RyYXRlZ2lzJTIwS2VtbHUlMjAyMDE1LTIwMTkucGRm

Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia. (2019, March 28). Reformasi Birokrasi MoFA. Retrieved from Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia: https://MoFA.go.id/portal/id/read/38/tentang_kami/reformasi-birokrasi-MoFA

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[1] Article 8 of the Constitution of Republic of Indonesia of 1945

[2] Horhoruw, M., Karippacheril, Tina George, Sutiyono, Dr. Wahyu, & Thomas, Theo. (n.d.). World Bank. Retrieved from Transforming the Public Sector in Indonesia: Delivering Total Reformasi: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTGOVANTICORR/Resources/3035863-1289428746337/Transforming_Public_Sector_Indonesia.pdf

[3] Horhoruw, M., Karippacheril, Tina George, Sutiyono, Dr. Wahyu, & Thomas, Theo. (n.d.). Ibid.

[4] Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia. (2019, March 28). Reformasi Birokrasi MoFA. Retrieved from Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia: https://MoFA.go.id/portal/id/read/38/tentang_kami/reformasi-birokrasi-MoFA

[5] Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia. (2015, April 6). Rencana Strategis 2015-2019. Retrieved from Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia: https://MoFA.go.id/download/L3NpdGVzL3B1c2F0L0RvY3VtZW50cy9BS0lQL0tlbWVudGVyaWFuJTIwTHVhciUyME5lZ2VyaS9SZW5jYW5hJTIwU3RyYXRlZ2lzJTIwS2VtbHUlMjAyMDE1LTIwMTkucGRm

[6] Breiger, R. (2004). The Analysis of Social Networks. In M. A. Hardy, & A. Bryman, Handbook of Data Analysis (pp. 505-526). London: Sage Publications