President Opens Coordinating Meeting On Govt's Internal Supervision

JAKARTA, May 19 (Antara)- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) officially opened a national coordinating meeting on the Government's internal supervision here, Thursday. "We should strengthen national discipline, and change the national work ethic, our mindset, and way of thinking. We can no longer maintain business as usual," he said at the State Palace. Indonesia had been a pioneer in infrastructure and education development; in fact, the country had sent teachers to help develop education in Malaysia, which is now more advanced than Indonesia in the field of education, he noted. South Korea has become capable of building submarines. Although Indonesia had the shipbuilding industry for a long time, it has never produced submarines. "What's wrong with us? These things, I will always remind everybody. We must change our way of thinking, our work ethic; we must be disciplined, if we don't want to be left behind by other countries," he stated. The Head of State also reminded village chiefs to manage village funds properly, transparently and effectively for the benefit of the public. He asked them to be careful while spending the village fund, whose value has been increasing from year to year. The village fund was valued at Rp20 trillion in 2015, increased to Rp47 trillion in 2016, and Rp60 trillion in 2017. "Make good use of the Rp60 trillion, which is not a small value. It can make our villages better, but if it is mismanaged, even the village chief can be held accountable," he warned.