Overcoming Good Governance: Towards Localized and Contextual Public Administration in Indonesia

摘要

Public administration in Indonesia is marked by the hegemony of good governance discourse. This discourse is theoretically backed up by New Public Management (NPM). Those two views share the same belief that market and private sector should be the cornerstone of administrative practices. Initially, good governance was promoted worldwide by the international donors as a mean to reform the institutional and governance capacity of state agents, and in Indonesia, its implementation has started since the 1990s through various development schemes and projects. Nowadays, it is still becoming the priority program of government under the title of administrative reform and national competitive advantages. The problem is that good governance fails to achieve its promises since the beginning of its introduction: the disparity is widening and the equality between main actors is far from reality. This should appeal to the awareness by public administration scholars and practicioners that the new approach and paradigm is needed. The effort of building Indonesia public administration must also consider the caution that local context and historical root play a vital role in influencing theory construction.