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A naive bureaucrat dragged into the dirt

In a meeting with Vice President Boediono and economics ministers in the middle of November, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar was asked to clarify the mess in the initial public offering (IPO) of state steelmaker PT Krakatau Steel

Rendi A. Witular and Hasyim Widhiarto (The Jakarta Post)
Wed, December 1, 2010

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A naive bureaucrat dragged into the dirt

I

n a meeting with Vice President Boediono and economics ministers in the middle of November, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar was asked to clarify the mess in the initial public offering (IPO) of state steelmaker PT Krakatau Steel.

Several critical questions that were raised by the Vice President failed to get sufficient answers from Mustafa, who eventually requested that ministry secretary Mahmuddin Yasin join the meeting to help him out with the replies.

A minister who attended the meeting said Mustafa’s decision to call for a backup to answer several basic questions concerning the IPO seemed to indicate that he was not up for the job.

“With his lack of knowledge about corporate affairs, he could easily be tricked by his officials,” said the minister.

Mustafa, 61, has been considered by many to be the wrong man for the job as he has spent most of his career in the fishery sector.

Although many have praised his integrity, Mustafa’s credentials are deemed insufficient to deal with the world of state companies, which is filled with countless vested interests and political tricks.

Representing the Acehnese in the Cabinet, Mustafa spent his early career as a civil servant assigned as a consultant for the World Bank from 1979 until 1989.

Mustafa first emerged on the national stage in 1999, when then fishery and maritime affairs minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, who is a top Golkar politician, appointed him as the ministry’s inspector general.

Impressed with his track record, then vice president Jusuf Kalla appointed Mustafa as acting governor of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam in 2005 to bring the province to recovery after the devastating tsunami that struck the province in late 2005.

Mustafa also had a part in the signing of the peace treaty between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group in August 2006.

In 2007, Mustafa was installed as president director of state logistics company Perum Bulog.

Mustafa’s relative success in cleaning up the company from graft earned him some credit, a point that led him to the ministerial seat in the hope of introducing the same measures at other state companies.

However, the Krakatau IPO debacle has revealed to Mustafa the magnitude of political vested interests and the complexity of his job.

A source at the ministry who is close to Mustafa said the minister was devastated upon learning that his newly appointed officials had taken advantage of his lack of experience and knowledge in the Krakatau IPO, thus putting him in harm’s way.

But Mustafa prefers to eat crow alone by thus far refusing to act firm against his wayward officials.

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