Politicization of ASN Careers: PPK Authority and Historical Heritage of Bureaucracy

This design inequality is nakedly visible in Law Number 20 of 2023 concerning ASN. Although the spirit of transformation is echoed, the normative construction of the authority of the Personnel Supervisor (PPK) still retains the old inherent defects: placing the Regional Head as the highest authority of ASN careers. Merilee Grindle (2012) calls this politicization a survival strategy for politicians. In Indonesia, this strategy manifests itself in the practice of job trading or buying and selling positions that are confirmed in various sting operations. Strategic positions are filled not based on meritocracy, but on partisan loyalty. This proves that bureaucratic independence is impossible to uphold as long as the fate of bureaucrats' careers is at the tip of a politician's pen.

The root of this problem can be traced to the "DNA" of our bureaucracy. History records that the Indonesian bureaucracy was not born from the womb of public service, but from the womb of colonial power created to perpetuate power. This character was reinforced in the New Order era through the doctrine of monoloyalty. B. Guy Peters (2001) reminds us that politicization is difficult to eliminate without radical changes to the "political bargain." This confirms the historical proposition: changes in regulations without changes in power relations only produce continuity in a new form. The relationship between bureaucrats and politicians is still strongly colored by patron-client relations, where formal laws change, but the sociology of our bureaucracy is still stuck in the past.