Kaleb Sihombing, Policy Analyst, Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, Indonesia

1) What does public service mean to you? Can you share more about your role in the public sector?  

When I applied for the civil service in 2021, I intentionally looked for an institution that could create a systemic, cross-cutting impact across the entire government rather than just a single sector. This led me to the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (PANRB), where I now serve as a Policy Analyst for government digital transformation — a dynamic field where change is inevitable.  

For me, public service is a means for social justice. Therefore, digital transformation in public services should never introduce administrative complexity. Instead, it should focus on accessibility and inclusivity, making life simpler and easier for the citizens we serve. 

2) Tell us about a project you championed. What impact did it have on the community? 

In my second year as a civil servant, I contributed to formulating a presidential regulation on accelerating digital transformation and integrating national digital services. Whilst the direct impact on the community is a long-term process, the momentum for change has already begun.

By establishing this regulation, we are dismantling bureaucratic silos and laying the groundwork for citizens to eventually experience seamless digital public services. 

3) As a young professional, how has your unique background or perspective allowed you to identify a solution that others in your organisation might have overlooked? 

My perspective is shaped by the intersection of a legal background and my role in formulating national policies for government digital transformation. In this field, there is often a disconnect: tech innovators tend to push for rapid digital adoption without fully navigating regulatory boundaries, whilst legal traditionalists often prioritise compliance over agility.  

Having a foot in both worlds allows me to practise a healthy dose of scepticism. By bridging law and technology, I am able to formulate policies that drive integration across government institutions, ensuring a simpler experience for citizens. 

4) What is your personal strategy for maintaining your creative energy when faced with bureaucracy? 

My strategy relies on a framework I developed to map out my workload, categorising tasks into three elements: administration, coordination, and substance. In bureaucracy, the administrative burden often consumes the highest proportion of our daily energy. Whilst we still need to ensure compliance within everyday administrative routines, my creative energy is directed towards how we coordinate effectively and how we analyse the core substance of a policy.  

Furthermore, there is always a risk of becoming over-optimistic and getting caught up in administrative milestones, creating policies inside a delusional bubble that feels detached from reality. By practising a degree of strategic pessimism, I remain brutally honest about the bureaucratic constraints we face. This allows me to focus on root causes and spend my energy building practical and impactful solutions. 

5) If you had just one area to invest in to accelerate transformation in the public sector, which would you choose and why?  

If I could choose only one area, I would invest in regulation. Whilst many tend to favour technology or talent, regulation possesses a unique power to create structural impacts that go far beyond our individual limitations. A good, future-proof regulation acts as a multiplier.  

Instead of just managing the current system, it compels us to adopt better technology and raises the standards for our talent. In a vast bureaucracy such as Indonesia's, we need adaptive regulatory frameworks to institutionalise change and ensure that transformation operates sustainably at a national scale. 

6) What is your greatest ambition as you grow in your public service career?  

I do not hold naïve or overly ambitious career goals. My ambition is simply a quiet hope that one day, Indonesia can become a genuinely pleasant and fair place to live, driven by good governance.  

This sentiment is shared by many young civil servants today, for whom climbing the career ladder is no longer the sole purpose of life. We are not passive. We choose to be fully present and work professionally within our capacity. By focusing on doing our immediate work well, we protect ourselves from burnout whilst still contributing meaningfully. 

7) What is a "universal value" that connects everyone in your department — from interns to directors — and how do you use that to drive collaboration?  

The universal value that connects my team is individual proactiveness. Our team consists of professionals who proactively seek solutions rather than waiting for top-down instructions. This value is critical in overcoming institutional bottlenecks.

When workloads peak and leadership lacks the time to delegate every task, our initiative to self-organise keeps things moving. I drive collaboration by treating everyone as autonomous problem-solvers who cooperate because we collectively care about the substance of our work.

8) What is the best piece of advice you have for the next generation of public servants?  

The best advice I can offer is that our ultimate leverage in the bureaucracy is our competence and professional work ethic. As young public servants, we will inevitably face moments where we disagree with a policy or witness instructions that clash with our idealistic views.

In those moments, we cannot let our standards drop. We need to understand our current position and focus our energy on the portion of work we can actually improve, no matter how small it may seem.  

We face two choices: we can either give up and drift along with the flaws of the system, or we can choose to be patient, sharpen our competence, and focus on making incremental changes where we stand. If every competent professional decides to leave (or stays but remains silent), the bureaucracy will suffer from a brain drain, and things will never move forward.

Until our position rises to enable a broader impact, our job is to protect our work ethics and stay in the game. 

9) What is a myth you wish to debunk about young public servants?  

The prevailing myth is that young public servants are naïve, over-optimistic idealists who want to disrupt everything without understanding real-world constraints. 

In reality, many of us possess a sharp sense of practical scepticism. We understand that blind optimism in bureaucracy often alienates the public because it results in tone-deaf, unrealistic goals. We do not live in a bubble.

By balancing our hope for a better system with a healthy dose of pessimism, we train ourselves to be brutally honest about administrative flaws. Our goal is not to flash delusional visions. It is to build realistic, functional public services that actually work for the community. 

10) Write a letter to your future self in 2035

Dear self, please stay sane, protect your integrity and work ethics, and maintain your healthy dose of pessimism.