This paper has three objectives: first, to acknowledge the basic right to water as recently recognized by the UN and, consequently, to address the government?s responsibility to provide water services; second, to describe the problems and dilemma in the privatization of water services in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, as a policy choice; third, to reinforce the idea that privatization of public services is beneficial but not a panacea; therefore, the government as the center of public administration needs to reconsider some of their key policies on public services.
