W

e understand that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should be very careful in selecting finance minister Agus Martowardojo'€™s successor, who has been confirmed by the House of Representatives as the new governor of Bank Indonesia.

Both the finance minister and the central bank chief will pilot the country'€™s economic management for the next 18 months since the President himself, most Cabinet ministers and House members will make the 2014 legislative and presidential elections the focus of their attention and resources.

The candidate for finance minister should, therefore, not be affiliated with any political party, possess macroeconomic knowledge, impeccable integrity, a strong personality and political courage to resist pressure for populist measures from any political or government leaders.

The new finance minister also will immediately be confronted with the cascading impact of the rising fiscal deficit, widening trade deficit, weakening rupiah '€” which has created stronger inflationary pressures '€” and the brunt of the European and US economic slowdown.

Yes, Agus will be installed on May 23, but keeping the business community and the market in general completely in the dark about who will be appointed as the leader of the fiscal authority could unnecessarily cause uncertainty.

Yet more worrisome was the President'€™s decision last week to appoint Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, who also chairs the National Mandate Party (PAN), as acting finance minister, while the President is still '€œsearching'€ for the right person.

Completing the list of potential conflicts of interests is the fact that Rajasa is the father-in-law of the President'€™s son, Edhie '€œIbas'€ Baskoro Yudhoyono, and is a potential contender from PAN in the 2014 presidential election while President Yudhoyono, currently in his second term, is no longer eligible for reelection.

As the finance minister for the past three years, Agus is known for his extreme fiscal prudence, managerial skills, leadership, integrity and his courage to be completely independent of both the executive and legislative branches of the government.

Agus'€™s experience at the Finance Ministry will enable him to coordinate well with the fiscal authority (Finance Ministry) and other financial regulators such as the Financial Services Authority and the State Deposit Agency.

Strong monetary and fiscal coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities has become even more imperative amid uncertainty in the global economy.

The President is well-advised enough to realize that the bedrock management of the macroeconomic stability in 2004, when the government and all political parties were preoccupied with the legislative and presidential election, was controlled by the economic team, which was then headed by Boediono, who was later appointed by President Yudhoyono as his chief economics minister in 2005.

Likewise, during the 2009 election period when incumbent President Yudhoyono, most cabinet members and lawmakers were busy campaigning, then finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who also acted as coordinating minister for the economy, was captain of the economic management ship.

Given the vital role of the finance minister in the management of the economy within the next 18 months in the run-up to the 2014 election, it is imperative for President Yudhoyono to announce his choice for the new finance minister soon.