New Cabinet need doubted by lawmakers

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 10/30/2006 11:19 AM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The President's newly established advisory team will only confuse and undermine the work of Cabinet ministers, who should be replaced if they are not doing their jobs, opposition lawmakers say.

The new work monitoring unit, headed by seasoned bureaucrat Marsillam Simanjuntak, was created with a Sept. 29 presidential decree and is tasked to review and advise the President on investment, government bureaucracy, small and medium-sized businesses, state-owned enterprises and law enforcement.

Lawmakers said Friday creating the new team implied Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had little trust in his ministers and could not depend on them to ensure that his policies were properly implemented.

Economist and lawmaker Dradjad Wibowo said the team, working directly under the supervision of the President with in a ministerial-level body, would hamper coordination between ministers and coordinating ministers.

The three coordinating ministers -- for the economy, political, legal and security affairs and for the people's welfare -- function to synchronize and monitor the work and policies of other Cabinet ministers.

""Why didn't (Yudhoyono) make Marsillam a coordinating minister? Ministers and director generals, for example, will have to answer to the coordinating ministers and probably again to the team,"" Dradjad said.

Tjahjo Kumolo, who leads the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction in the House of Representatives, said the team would cause inefficiencies as it would conflict with the work of the state minister for state enterprises, the state minister for administrative reforms and the National Investment Coordinating Agency.

""If the ministers are unable to implement the President's vision and programs, and work slowly, they should just be replaced,"" he said.

Another working unit, he said, would only lead to more bureaucracy.

A politician from Yudhoyono's Democrat Party, Anas Urbaningrum, said the working unit would need a strict and crystal-clear job description if it were to succeed.

""One of the huge problems in our bureaucratic system is lousy coordination. With a clear job description and authorities, we shouldn't expect the team to fail,"" he said.

Anas said the new team should not ""compete"" with ministers because this would spark friction in the Cabinet and in the administration as a whole.

There are no details yet as to how the team will work with Cabinet ministers.

Marsillam has declined to comment about the team's role, saying it did not deserve publicity.

Dradjad said if the new team was to have distinctive function, it should emulate the work of the West Wing in the U.S. White House.

""They (West Wing appointees) work as the President's analysts and policy scrutinizers before and after (policy) implementation. They don't conflict with Cabinet ministers,"" he said.

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