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Petty officials proliferate. For 350 years of their occupation the Dutch had given Indonesians virtually no experience in administration and government service above junior levels. Indonesian officials were allowed to decide most inconsequential departmental matters, but for the weightier decisions in affairs of high finance and politics the Dutch decided for Them. Over 350 years there evolved a tradition of invariably allowing the more important decisions to go to the top and to settle only minor problems lower down the hierarchy, resulting in the extreme patriarchalism and painfully slow decision-making process in the Indonesian bureaucracy today.