(本文選自《經濟學人》20200926期)
背景介紹：
在印尼，幾乎人人都想成為公務員。去年，印尼政府在全國設置了15萬個公務員崗位，而最終報考人數高達420萬人。印尼人爭先恐後地想要成為公務員，是為了報效國家和為人民服務嗎？
Why so many Indonesians want to be public servantsHint: the public and service seldom have much to do with it
When the government rang to tell Budi (not his real name) that he had been hired as a tax collector, it was like a dream come true. When he graduated from university in 2013, the only work he could find was as a stevedore at the local port. Jobs in his hometown of Ende, a small city on the island of Flores, were scarce.
當政府打電話給布迪，告訴他已被聘為稅務員時，他感覺這像是美夢成真一般。2013年大學畢業時，他所能找到的唯一一份工作就是在當地港口做搬運工。他的家鄉恩德是弗洛雷斯島上的一個小城，那裡的工作機會很少。Local government promised a steady income and a pension. Even more important for Budi was the status that came with the job. When he put on his civil-service uniform for the first time five years ago, 「people saw me differently,」 he says. 「It’s one of the most respected jobs in the area.」
當地政府承諾給公務員提供穩定的收入和養老金。但對布迪來說，更重要的是這份工作所帶來的地位。五年前，當他第一次穿上公務員制服時，他說：「人們看我的眼神都不一樣了，這是這裡最受人尊敬的工作之一。」Budi was one of the lucky ones. Last year some 4.2m people applied for around 150,000 spots in the civil service. Many enlist to serve their country. Others are less high-minded. Jobs are hard to find for young Indonesians. In 2019 as many as 26% of those aged between 15 and 19 and 16% of those between 20 and 24 were unemployed and out of school.
布迪是其中的幸運兒之一。去年，印尼大約有420萬人申請15萬個公務員崗位。許多人報考公務員是為了報效國家，但其他人就沒那麼高尚了。印尼年輕人很難找到工作。2019年，印尼年齡在15歲至19歲之間的年輕人的失業及失學率達26%，年齡在20歲至24歲之間的年輕人的失業及失學率達16%。In many poorer provinces, the government is one of the biggest employers: a study in the Indonesian part of New Guinea in 2014 found that, in many districts, more than one in ten people of working age were civil servants.
在許多較為貧窮的省份，政府是最大的僱主之一：2014年，一項在紐幾內亞印尼屬地進行的研究發現，在許多地區，勞動適齡人口中公務員的比例超過10%。Government salaries are often higher than those at private companies, and jobs are for life. Working-class Indonesians see the civil service as their route to the middle class, says Pande Made Kutanegara, an anthropologist at Universitas Gadjah Mada.
政府開出的工資往往比私企高，而且這份工作還是個鐵飯碗。印尼加扎馬達大學的人類學家潘德·馬德·庫塔內加拉說，印尼的工薪階層將公務員視為通往中產階級的途徑。Moreover, there is prestige associated with being a government man. In the colonial era the Dutch stripped local aristocrats of their powers and turned them into bureaucrats. Fallen nobles lent prestige to their humble new posts, says Mr Pande. Today some senior bureaucrats, particularly in the farther reaches of the archipelago, regard the districts in which they serve as their own personal fiefs.
此外，成為一名政府官員還能獲得聲望。在殖民時代，荷蘭人奪去了當地貴族的權力，將他們變成了官僚。潘德表示，墮落的貴族為他們卑微的新職位增添了些許威望。如今，一些高級官員（特別是在印尼群島的偏遠地區）仍將他們所服務的地區視為自己的私人領地。The reasons why so many Indonesians want to become public servants also explain why, once they have succeeded, they often fail to serve the people. Public services are patchy, particularly at the level of local government, which is responsible for health care and education, among other things.
這便是許多印尼人想要成為公務員的原因，這也解釋了他們為何一旦成為了公務員，卻往往不會為人民服務。印尼的公共服務水平參差不齊，特別是在地方政府一級的衛生保健和教育事業方面。Real spending per person by local governments soared between 1994 and 2017, by 258% on average, according to the World Bank. But services remain ropy. More than half of children leave school unable to read properly, for instance.
據世界銀行的數據顯示，1994年至2017年，印尼地方政府的人均實際支出猛增了258%。但服務仍差強人意。例如，超過一半的孩子在離開學校時仍無法正常閱讀。Inefficiency is rife. At the local level, exam results, jobs, promotions and transfers are regularly sold to the highest bidders, according to a study published in 2012 by Peter Blunt and Hendrik Lindroth of the World Bank and Mark Turner of the University of Canberra.
在印尼，政府部門效率普遍很低。據世界銀行的彼得·布朗特和亨德裡克·林德羅斯以及坎培拉大學的馬克·特納在2012年發布的一項研究顯示，在印尼地方政府一級，考試成績、工作、人事晉升和調動通常會都會賣給出價最高的人。Local politicians often reward supporters with temporary posts in the civil service. Thus many bureaucrats are unqualified for their jobs. A report published in 2017 by the State Civil Service Agency found that more than 40% of the 696 directors (the highest-ranking bureaucrats) that it assessed were not fit to do their jobs.
地方政客經常會給予其支持者當地公務員系統的臨時職位以作獎勵。因此，許多官員根本無法勝任他們的工作。據印尼國家公務員事務局在2017發布的一份報告顯示，在經該機構評估的696名董事（最高級別官員）中，超過40%的人無法勝任其職位。Yet it is almost impossible to fire civil servants. In 2017 only 347 out of 4.3m were dismissed. 「It means you don’t have this big motivation for your future or to develop yourself,」 says Hadiono (also not his real name), who works for the Ministry of Tourism.
然而，想要解僱一名公務員幾乎是不可能的。2017年，在印尼的430萬名公務員中僅有347人被解僱。在旅遊部門工作的哈迪奧諾（化名）說：「這意味著，你將對自己的未來和發展不會有太大動力。」Workers often slink away from their desks hours before they are supposed to. Municipal police in some provinces are under instructions to round up skiving bureaucrats (identifiable by their khaki uniforms) and deposit them back at the office, says Dr Pande.
許多公務員經常會在下班前幾個小時就偷偷溜走。潘德說，在某些省份，市政警察會奉命抓捕逃班的公務員（可以根據其穿著的卡其布制服將他們認出來），然後將他們送回辦公室。本文翻譯：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
編輯：Vinnie
在印尼，之所以人人都想成為公務員，主要有以下幾方面的原因。首先，在印尼許多地區，工作機會並不多，而公務員則有著不錯的薪酬待遇，並且還是鐵飯碗。其次，在傳統的思想觀念下，成為公務員還能給人帶來聲望。aristocrat [əˈrɪstəkræt] n. 貴族每天一篇雙語經濟學人沒有看夠！
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