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Showing posts from August, 2012

Sebuah Ide Untuk Efisiensi Kerja PNS: Pelayanan Sipil 24 Jam

Bayangkan anda adalah seorang karyawan kantoran, dan anda diminta bos anda untuk melakukan perjalanan dinas ke luar negeri. Ketika sampai rumah anda baru sadar, bahwa paspor anda sudah habis beberapa bulan yang lalu. Anda juga sadar bahwa jatah cuti anda untuk tahun ini sudah habis. Maka matilah anda. Ya, saat ini berbagai lembaga-lembaga pemerintah yang sifatnya adalah pelayanan bagi warga hanya buka pada jam kerja. Parahnya, banyak pelayanan yang entah karena kekurangan personel atau hanya karena manajemen yang buruk membutuhkan waktu sehari penuh untuk mengurusnya. Terkadang lebih. Artinya, pemerintah seakan memaksa anda untuk meninggalkan pekerjaan anda  selama satu hari penuh untuk dapat mengurus hal tersebut. SIM, paspor, KTP, KK, dan berbagai macam urusan sipil lainnya memaksa warga negara bolos kerja. Bayangkan inefisiensi yang terjadi ketika ribuan orang setiap harinya harus meninggalkan pekerjaan mereka demi mendapatkan pelayanan pemerintah tersebut. Mari kita kuant

What if All Higher Educational Institutions be Privatized?

Some time ago I wrote an article  explaining why subsidies for higher education is such bad thing to have. It is highly regressive and favors the rich instead of the poor, and might in fact widen the gap between them. But now an idea came across my mind, is it possible to have a completely privatized higher education system? A system where the government does not interfere with the provision of higher education, and let private enterprise work it out. Let’s start imagining things here. A completely private education system would provide society with the kind of graduates which are needed by the private sector. Private companies will have a stake at how well universities are doing their teachings. It will help make sure they produce the efficient amount of graduates of different subjects. It will make sure that the kind of pedagogy the students receive in university will turn them to useful graduates later on that can work well in the private sector without much more training being nece

Parking Our Way Out of Traffic Jams

With Jakarta gubernatorial election coming up, a lot of people have been buzzing about how traffic jams are the city's biggest problem and that the ability to rid Jakarta of traffic jams is one of the most demanded qualities of a governor. Most candidates come up with detailed plans to deal with traffic. Incumbent Foke thinks there is no other way but up, others have mentioned building better public transportation systems. I will make the case that neither solution would work by themselves, at least not in the long run. Foke's no way but up mindset is an absolute disaster. More roads will only lead to more cars, and before you know it, bam, traffic all over the above-ground roads. Now let's look at the solution most Jakartans seem to agree on, a better public transportation system. A lot of my friends drive everywhere they go have been saying things like "if only Jakarta's public transportation were more convenient, I'd switch and not drive anymore". Seems