For the last three years, I have tried to write my ideas on how to improve Indonesia’s future while living thousands miles away from the archipelago. Observing and analyzing the country from a distance, I was more or less like a spectator of a soccer game. A typical spectator usually yells at and blames players who made mistakes as if he knows better than the players themselves. But one thing is different. Real life is not always like a game and unlike in a soccer game or any other game the real-life players are not always better than the spectators, and vice versa. So, it is not wrong to criticize them and propose ideas how to improve the game.

The real life we are talking about is the current reality developing in Indonesia; the players are the leaders, policy makers and politicians; the spectators are the observers, just like myself; and the game is the endeavor to promote a better Indonesia. Last month, I was in the country for almost 4 weeks.

 “I have no more trust in the government,” said a taxi driver who took me from my hotel in Cikini to Sarinah in Thamrin when I asked him about his view of the current government. “They are all liars and full of corrupt individuals,” he added.

Suddenly I remember my interview a few years ago with a middle age man for my research survey.  When I asked him about his opinion of the government policy toward the poor, to my surprise, he gave me an unexpected answer. He was neither asking the government to channel money to them nor hoping the government would provide some sort of food stamps as commonly implemented in the Western countries. The answer was simple but the implications and the guts to do that absolutely required some courage. He said, “I just want the government not to lie to us.”

Everywhere, government is always subject to suspicion. The common belief, “the government has every incentive to lie” is not something new.  Most people usually tend to see its bad side rather than the good side.  Like the taxi driver, majority of people tend to see the government as the source of all problems arisen in a society. When water covering majority of areas in Jakarta last year, they would automatically blame the government for implementing a poor city plan. When there are not enough jobs, they blame the government for not working hard to recover the economy. When the heavy weight corruptors are still enjoying their freedom - vacation in exotic places, big houses somewhere in the Northeast of the US, expensive condos in Europe and etc - they blame the government for collaborating with them.

They have every reason to blame the government as indeed, the reality in the country does not provide much evidence that the government is really working toward the benefit of all, or at least for the benefit of majority of people. Some supporting examples are: Top government officials are still continuously using public’s facilities and resources for their own benefits.  Comparative studies to overseas, widely done by the top government officials and legislative members recently, are nothing but mostly for pleasure purposes.  Last year for instance, in an effort to curb wasteful trips by regional officials that do not serve the public interest, the President has issued an instruction that requires all regional officials to seek her consent before going abroad. Ironically, while repeatedly complaining about the poor achievements of the bureaucracy and lamenting the so-called ‘comparative studies’ undertaken by regional representatives, President herself has traveled abroad extensively during the last two years of her presidency often for and accompanied by rather questionable motives and officials. That is much alike her predecessor, Mr. Gus Dur.

And the latest revelation about some civil servants only went to work one day per month - to collect their pay only proves how worse the government’s performance is. The payroll to pay these one-day-per-month government employers, wrote William J. Furney in Indonesia's phantom civil servants amounts to a gargantuan 111.7 billion rupiah (S$22.87 million) a month. According to Mr Feisal, state minister for administrative reform, many had been university-educated - often abroad - at the state's expense.

The next day I took a bajaj to make a purposeless trip around Cikini and Raden Saleh streets other than interviewing the driver. When I informed him about the city’s plan to replace bajaj with a better looking kancil, he instantaneously replied, “That’s a lie.”

Kancil, which has four wheels, looks more beautiful and convenient. In addition, it is produced locally and made by the national experts. "In short, I agree. But, how many of Kancil of which are allowed to operate, we will leave it to the City Communications Office," City Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso told the press in July in Jakarta. 

No matter what the government’s intentions are, it seems the folks no longer trust them. “Trust is something vital missing in this country,” said Mr. Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, former Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries at our casual conversation. “During the New Order regime, the folks did not believe the government,” said one of top officials at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs. “But now, they distrust the legislative members even more.” He added.

So, who can trust whom? Or, is there any room for trust to grow in the country?

One may hold a belief that the government is bad and always tells lies.  For anarchists, the government is not only a bad guy, but also an agent that needs to be eliminated. According to Encyclopedia Britannica anarchism is a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups. And anarchist is the one who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power.

Yet, we can hardly find in this world a country without a government. But that would not be sufficient to prove that the government is needed.

Imagine a family without a leader and everybody is acting like a boss and kid at the same time. So, who will do the work? Who will go to the school? Who will listen to whom? Or, imagine a company without a manager but everyone in the company is employee and employer who holds the same status and position at the same time. Is the company going to be productive?

The question, therefore, is not whether we need the government or not. For better or worse, we still need the government. One thing most people forget is the government is a body that consists of individuals who, in turn, are also part of the society. All people in the government who form the body are part of our family, friends and neighbors. We are just one of them. The government is nothing but our mirror. When the government always lies, we also always lie. When the government is corrupt, the corruptors are all around us. When the government is not efficient, most of us are not efficient. When the government is unfair, our folks are often much worse, beheading people in front of their wives, kids and parents, burning people alive in front of their loved ones and killing other people like ants.

People in the government are not aliens from outer space, but they are part of our family. The prerequisite to have a good, clean and reliable government is to have mentally strong families in a nation. Long time ago Soeharto stated that a strong nation could only be achieved if families in the nation are strong. But somehow most people, including the former president himself, misunderstood it. A strong family does not mean a rich family, but a morally rich and well-educated family. If a family becomes abundant in physical capital, that is by product of the latter, not by practicing collusion, corruption and nepotism or KKN.     

Once John Adams, the second president of the US, wrote, “There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” But how do we know that the men or women in power will endanger the public liberty (and prosperity)? Don’t they swear under oath before assuming public offices? Perhaps a little advice from a philosopher, Solon, who said, “Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath” is worth pondering.

It’s time for our society to put more trust in nobility of character than in any other kinds of promises - from wealth to power. That’s the first lesson from reality of how to build a better Indonesia.