Mulyagusdin

This piece was first published as an opinion column in Serambi Indonesia (Serambinews.com), October 8, 2025. I'm republishing it here because its message remains relevant: what determines the quality of a bureaucracy isn't who sits in the chair, but what motivation they bring.

The government of Aceh recently carried out a major rotation, swearing in 294 echelon III and IV officials simultaneously following several agency head changes. The event drew public attention. Bureaucratic rotation is common enough, but at this scale it often raises a question: is this just a change of chairs, or the arrival of new energy?

In a global context full of upheaval, this question becomes even more relevant. We're in an era of disruption, where change happens suddenly and shakes the foundations of organizations. What matters isn't how often the bureaucratic chair changes hands, but how responsive, motivated, and competitive the people sitting in it actually are.

Global economic disruption can't be ignored. The world is witnessing rapid change in geopolitics, technology, and international markets. Economic policy can shift drastically, as would happen if Indonesia replaced its Finance Minister with someone taking a different approach from the foundation built over the past ten years. BRICS itself is now challenging the dominance of the US dollar.

Illustration: movement and transition; an abstraction of the spirit of rotation toward a new direction. (Personal documentation, Japan)

Regional conflicts like Thailand–Myanmar disrupt supply chains. Nepal's Gen-Z-driven political upheaval shows just how fast change can arrive. Digital technology gives birth to new business models while killing off old ones. Left unaddressed, disruption can turn into disaster.

We still remember the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, which triggered a global crisis. Aceh isn't immune to situations like this. This region still depends on supplies from neighboring provinces and on the special autonomy fund. The impact is felt directly in the prices of basic goods, in investment, and in jobs. That's why Aceh's bureaucracy can't keep working with the old pattern. Its people have to be responsive, innovative, and able to compete.

Rotation Without Motivation

Official rotations are often called a "refresh," but that doesn't automatically mean improvement. The chairs can change, but without strong motivation, the result is nothing. What emerges instead are bureaucrats in survival mode: playing it safe, reluctant to take risks, and generating no innovation. The result is that energy gets spent on adapting, with no gain in quality. The core problem in our bureaucracy lies in an obsession with the chair, while motivation keeps getting pushed to the margins.

The solution needed is to prepare people entrusted with this mandate who are responsive, motivated, and competitive. In management literature, the concept of motivation-based competency has long received attention. Richard Boyatzis, in The Competent Manager (1982), states that “A competence is an underlying characteristic of a person which results in effective and/or superior performance in a job.” Competence isn't just a technical skill, but also a core trait directly tied to superior performance.

David Sparrow and Boam (1992, in Competency Based Human Resource Management) assert, “Competence should be understood as a combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and motivation which together predict consistent patterns of performance.”

Motivation holds a special place, the main driver that allows knowledge and skill to actually be applied in day-to-day performance. Without motivation, knowledge remains just theory, and skill stays confined to routine. Strong motivation pulls all of a person's abilities together and turns them into productive energy that produces superior performance, even amid uncertainty.

Sparrow's theory has also strongly influenced global corporate strategy. Many major organizations make motivation the foundation of competence. Google, for instance, treats Curiosity & Innovation Drive as a primary recruitment indicator. They believe strong curiosity produces sustained innovation.

Toyota, with its philosophy of Commitment to Excellence & Continuous Improvement (Kaizen), emphasizes employee commitment to continuous improvement, which is only possible when internal motivation is high. Unilever built its Purpose-Driven Performance strategy, encouraging employees to work with awareness of the company's larger purpose, so that motivation goes beyond just chasing profit.

Tesla under Elon Musk also shows how Mission Orientation & Risk-Taking pushes people to take on big risks in pursuit of radical breakthroughs. All these examples show just how much motivational competence has become the key to a modern organization's competitiveness.

For that reason, selection and placement must be motivation-based, not just a formality. Motivation here means a person's internal drive to contribute, to learn, and to bring about change. After that, serious preparation and onboarding must follow.

New officials shouldn't just be set loose; they need to be guided to understand Aceh's larger vision, global challenges, and the new standards of public service. Evaluation based on real performance must also be applied regularly and fairly. This way, rotation genuinely becomes a positive disruption, not just an administrative exercise.

Setting a Civilization in Motion

History shows that great civilizations don't collapse because they're militarily or economically weak, but because they lose their internal motivation. The Ottoman Sultanate is one example. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), by contrast, showed how firm motivation can turn a small community into a great civilization.

Seen through a modern lens, the motivational principles the Prophet modeled turn out to align with the motivational competencies of global companies. Google grows on the drive to seek knowledge, echoing the Prophet's own example of seeking truth from a young age until he received his first revelation.

Toyota puts commitment to quality first, much like the Prophet, known for his honesty and trustworthiness in trade. Unilever operates with a larger purpose, just as the Prophet consistently upheld tawhid even in the face of ridicule and persecution. Tesla dares to take risks for its mission, echoing the Prophet's courage during the hijrah and the battles that shaped his community's future.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) offers a model of leadership that isn't only spiritual but also relevant to modern governance. Unfortunately, believers often stop at acknowledging this without truly following the values and motivation behind his mission.

The question is, do we in Aceh dare to make these values the foundation for developing our people? If global companies can advance with curiosity, continuous improvement, purpose, and mission orientation, then we should realize all the more that these were already modeled by the Prophet, with a far nobler motivation: building a civilization, not chasing a fleeting profit.

This value is deeply relevant for Aceh's new officials. They need motivation to work not for the chair, but for the larger mission of building an Aceh that is advanced, just, and prosperous. Bureaucratic rotation is inevitable, but what matters isn't whose chair changes hands, it's what motivation they bring with them. With the right motivation, rotation can become a turning point toward a more responsive and competitive bureaucracy.

Aceh now has a golden opportunity with hundreds of new officials. If they work with firm motivation, inspired by the Prophet's example, and stay alert to global disruption, this rotation can become the foundation for major change. Chairs may change hands, but motivation must never die. Aceh must endure.