Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesian civil servants will be asked to get their urine tested for drugs, and the results could affect their performance appraisal.

Hardening her stance on drug abuse, President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday issued instructions to this effect in a Cabinet meeting. "The President has called for law enforcement to be committed to fighting illegal drugs," National Police spokesman General Da'i Bachtiar told reporters after the meeting.

"She also wants all department and government bodies to monitor their officials and make them take urine tests, whose results will affect the officials' performance appraisals." But he did not say what would happen to officials whose test results showed they use illegal drugs.

The President has reiterated her tough stance against narcotics on several occasions. Last year, she called for severe punishment for drug dealers, including the death sentence.

Her latest remark was probably a response to several instances of drug busts involving officials and lower-level lawmakers. Last August, the head of the local legislature in Gresik Regency in East Java was arrested after a raid on a hotel room in the provincial capital of Surabaya. Mr Bambang Hartono was found using the methamphetamine crystal called shabu-shabu with two women.

And in the South Sulawesi town of Gowa, police arrested Regency Chief Syahrul Yasin Limpo in a hotel room in what appeared to be a shabu-shabu party last November.

The head of the Office of Industry in the town of Makassar, also in South Sulawesi, was also arrested over illegal drugs in the same month.

Some local administrations, noticing that illegal drug use was becoming more common among officials, had anticipated the problems earlier than the central government.

In West Kalimantan, members of the provincial legislature and the city council had been required to take urine and blood tests. Some 8,000 civil servants of the provincial government of Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, also had to take urine tests last year.

But an official at the Ministry of Industry and Trade said yesterday he doubted such a policy would cut down on the use of drugs within the government. "Whatever they do, if law enforcement is not effective and is still corrupt, they will fail to clamp down on drug use," said the official who requested anonymity. "Besides, what would happen if the test result of an official shows he uses drugs? Will he get fired? Firing a civil servant is not easy - it requires a lengthy procedure, including issuing several verbal and written warnings," he said.

He said the percentage of people using drugs in the government office was not high. But at offices dealing with drug problems, such as the police force and the Office of Social Welfare, officials often use the drugs they seize, he said. "The urine test should be done there first," he added.