A uniquely Yudhoyono move
Saturday, May 12, 2007
IT SAYS a lot about the nature of Indonesian politics — and the paucity of policies and principles attending it — that a pending Cabinet reshuffle these days takes on the proportions of an earth-shattering event.
Former president Suharto almost never bothered with them, worried perhaps that the need for ministerial changes might be seen as evidence that he was not always a good judge of character.
Reshuffles are more common now, because party politics and even public pressure demand at least an occasional shifting of the deck chairs.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this week carried out his second limited reshuffle since he took office in October 2004. Continuity, he has kept pointing out, is more important than wholesale change, hence the presence of only five new faces — and predictable complaints that it was not nearly enough.
But in a clear sign of concern that his anti-corruption campaign has run out of steam and credibility, the President sacked Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin and State Secretary Yusril Izha Mahendra and replaced Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Saleh with tough-minded prosecutor Hendarman Supandji.
Both Awaluddin and Mahendra have been under fire over allegations that they helped Mr Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, transfer US$10 million ($15 million) in private funds through a government bank account while he was serving time for ordering the murder of a Supreme Court justice.
Although there has been no suggestion at this point that corruption was involved, legal experts and other commentators have been appalled at what they consider to be an abuse of power which raised serious questions about the integrity of Dr Yudhoyono's Cabinet.
The President apparently agreed, although as a minority leader he was also clearly influenced in his other ministerial changes by the need to maintain a balance of political forces in his rainbow coalition, underpinned as it is by Vice-President Jusuf Kalla's majority Golkar party.
A day after Awaluddin lost his job, police announced they would call him for questioning over claims that he may have committed perjury during an investigation into corrupt practices when he was a member of the General Elections Commission (KPU).
A number of fellow KPU members and secretariat bureaucrats have been jailed over the past two years for receiving kickbacks from suppliers of ballot boxes and other materials for the 2004 legislative and presidential elections.
Supandji, 60, indicated that with Awaluddin out of the picture, investigators will also now be free to look further into the circumstances that led to the Justice Ministry facilitating the transfer of Tommy's money.
Sources involved in the anti-corruption fight say they believe that coordination will improve under the uncompromising new Attorney-General, who had headed a presidential task force on corruption until its three-year mandate expired earlier this month.
The sources say the leading role he played in the ongoing corruption investigation involving a former head of the State Logistics Bureau (Bulog) and members of his family has shown his effectiveness in getting enforcement agencies to work together.
"He has proven his commitment and I think he will have a better idea how to deal with internal problems," one senior official said. That, he says, means reforming systems within the Attorney-General's Office, which his predecessor, the mild-mannered Saleh, seemed incapable of doing.
What is encouraging is the fact that President Yudhoyono has been able to replace Saleh with someone from within the bureaucratic structure who is considered to be equally clean — no easy task in a country where the civil service is endemically corrupt.
A 32-year veteran of the Attorney-General's Office, Supandji has close ties to the intelligence services and the Indonesian Armed Forces, where his brother, Major-General Hendardji, heads the Military Police.
But what is not so clear is whether he will have a free hand to go after high-profile political figures. "In the end, it all comes back to the President," notes one palace aide. "He talks about it (the anti-corruption effort), but he does not create a sense of urgency."
The other changes are more about politics, with State Enterprises Minister Sugiharto replaced by outgoing Communications Minister Sofyan Djalil, who moves to a ministry where he served as a deputy to businessman Tanri Abeng in the late 1990s.
Awaluddin gives way to Golkar parliamentary leader Andi Mattalatta, but the President angered his critics by predictably clinging on to controversial Chief Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, whose company is blamed for an ongoing mudflow disaster in East Java.
Conflict of interest is not a recognised sin in Indonesia.
As widely expected, embattled Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa lost his job because of a recent rash of air and sea disasters that have claimed hundreds of lives and raised serious concerns over the country's deplorable transport safety record.
But partly to placate his National Mandate Party, and partly because of the high regard in which he is held, Radjasa was moved sideways to fill the State Secretary post left by the disgruntled Mahendra, who refused to meet the President to hear why he had to go.
The transportation portfolio was taken by aeronautical engineer Jusman Djamal, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, who must now tackle the unenviable job of forcing the air and sea regulatory agencies to spend more time ensuring passenger safety than collecting fees.
Bureaucratic reforms such as these remain the country's over-riding priority, no matter how many times presidents change their ministers. But as we have seen these past few weeks, a reshuffle gives commentators a rare opportunity to indulge in political analysis.
But with parties eschewing policies, it is only a Cabinet change — and a resulting shift in patronage networks — that gives them something to write home about. The Straits Times/Asia News Network
Former president Suharto almost never bothered with them, worried perhaps that the need for ministerial changes might be seen as evidence that he was not always a good judge of character.
Reshuffles are more common now, because party politics and even public pressure demand at least an occasional shifting of the deck chairs.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this week carried out his second limited reshuffle since he took office in October 2004. Continuity, he has kept pointing out, is more important than wholesale change, hence the presence of only five new faces — and predictable complaints that it was not nearly enough.
But in a clear sign of concern that his anti-corruption campaign has run out of steam and credibility, the President sacked Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin and State Secretary Yusril Izha Mahendra and replaced Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Saleh with tough-minded prosecutor Hendarman Supandji.
Both Awaluddin and Mahendra have been under fire over allegations that they helped Mr Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, transfer US$10 million ($15 million) in private funds through a government bank account while he was serving time for ordering the murder of a Supreme Court justice.
Although there has been no suggestion at this point that corruption was involved, legal experts and other commentators have been appalled at what they consider to be an abuse of power which raised serious questions about the integrity of Dr Yudhoyono's Cabinet.
The President apparently agreed, although as a minority leader he was also clearly influenced in his other ministerial changes by the need to maintain a balance of political forces in his rainbow coalition, underpinned as it is by Vice-President Jusuf Kalla's majority Golkar party.
A day after Awaluddin lost his job, police announced they would call him for questioning over claims that he may have committed perjury during an investigation into corrupt practices when he was a member of the General Elections Commission (KPU).
A number of fellow KPU members and secretariat bureaucrats have been jailed over the past two years for receiving kickbacks from suppliers of ballot boxes and other materials for the 2004 legislative and presidential elections.
Supandji, 60, indicated that with Awaluddin out of the picture, investigators will also now be free to look further into the circumstances that led to the Justice Ministry facilitating the transfer of Tommy's money.
Sources involved in the anti-corruption fight say they believe that coordination will improve under the uncompromising new Attorney-General, who had headed a presidential task force on corruption until its three-year mandate expired earlier this month.
The sources say the leading role he played in the ongoing corruption investigation involving a former head of the State Logistics Bureau (Bulog) and members of his family has shown his effectiveness in getting enforcement agencies to work together.
"He has proven his commitment and I think he will have a better idea how to deal with internal problems," one senior official said. That, he says, means reforming systems within the Attorney-General's Office, which his predecessor, the mild-mannered Saleh, seemed incapable of doing.
What is encouraging is the fact that President Yudhoyono has been able to replace Saleh with someone from within the bureaucratic structure who is considered to be equally clean — no easy task in a country where the civil service is endemically corrupt.
A 32-year veteran of the Attorney-General's Office, Supandji has close ties to the intelligence services and the Indonesian Armed Forces, where his brother, Major-General Hendardji, heads the Military Police.
But what is not so clear is whether he will have a free hand to go after high-profile political figures. "In the end, it all comes back to the President," notes one palace aide. "He talks about it (the anti-corruption effort), but he does not create a sense of urgency."
The other changes are more about politics, with State Enterprises Minister Sugiharto replaced by outgoing Communications Minister Sofyan Djalil, who moves to a ministry where he served as a deputy to businessman Tanri Abeng in the late 1990s.
Awaluddin gives way to Golkar parliamentary leader Andi Mattalatta, but the President angered his critics by predictably clinging on to controversial Chief Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, whose company is blamed for an ongoing mudflow disaster in East Java.
Conflict of interest is not a recognised sin in Indonesia.
As widely expected, embattled Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa lost his job because of a recent rash of air and sea disasters that have claimed hundreds of lives and raised serious concerns over the country's deplorable transport safety record.
But partly to placate his National Mandate Party, and partly because of the high regard in which he is held, Radjasa was moved sideways to fill the State Secretary post left by the disgruntled Mahendra, who refused to meet the President to hear why he had to go.
The transportation portfolio was taken by aeronautical engineer Jusman Djamal, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, who must now tackle the unenviable job of forcing the air and sea regulatory agencies to spend more time ensuring passenger safety than collecting fees.
Bureaucratic reforms such as these remain the country's over-riding priority, no matter how many times presidents change their ministers. But as we have seen these past few weeks, a reshuffle gives commentators a rare opportunity to indulge in political analysis.
But with parties eschewing policies, it is only a Cabinet change — and a resulting shift in patronage networks — that gives them something to write home about. The Straits Times/Asia News Network
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