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'€˜FEUI gang'€™ pondering career after SBY out

A collection of graduates from the University of Indonesia’s faculty of economics (FEUI) is currently contemplating its future after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono leaves office

Satria Sambijantoro (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, July 19, 2014

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'€˜FEUI gang'€™ pondering career after SBY out

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collection of graduates from the University of Indonesia'€™s faculty of economics (FEUI) is currently contemplating its future after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono leaves office.

However, these people are no ordinary graduates fearing unemployment due to their below-par academic scores.

Rather, they happen to be the country'€™s key economic decision makers who may have to bid farewell to their respective posts as the new president is unlikely to favor their pro-market economic views, which have won them the reputation as being '€œneoliberals'€.

Currently, the faculty'€™s graduates control up to two layers of economic policy-making both on the fiscal and monetary sides: Finance Minister Chatib Basri and his deputy Bambang Brodjonegoro, as well as Governor Agus Martowardojo and Senior Deputy Governor Mirza Adityaswara of Bank Indonesia (BI).

Also on the list of FEUI alumni are Muliaman Hadad and Mahendra Siregar, who respectively head the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), as well as Firmanzah, who serves as the President'€™s special staffer on economic affairs.

These people, alongside other FEUI-educated graduates such as former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and former BI governor Darmin Nasution, are widely credited with the economic achievements of President Yudhoyono.

During his decade-long leadership, Indonesia won a place in the Group of Twenty (G20), a pool of the world'€™s 20 biggest economies, with the country also earning the title as the world'€™s most resilient economy with the smallest year-on-year output deviation, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

'€œWe must admit that, in terms of economic knowledge and policy-making ability, FEUI alumni probably are the best minds available,'€ said Destry Damayanti, the chief economist of Bank Mandiri, the country'€™s largest bank by assets.

Destry, who is also an FEUI alumna, entering the faculty in 1983, recalled a story of how the tough learning environment there had pushed her learning capability to the limit.

'€œWe were overwhelmed with too many SKS [study credits]. If I remember correctly, the faculty made me study the subjects of microeconomics, macroeconomics, statistics, six times each,'€ she recalled.

'€œThis is why, at my time, it was almost impossible to graduate within four years of study '€“ the quickest was four-and-a-half, most common was five years.'€

The faculty'€™s learning environment was so demanding that Agus, the current BI governor and former finance minister, earned his bachelor'€™s degree from FEUI only after studying there for nine years.

However, as a new president will take over soon, FEUI'€™s sheer dominance in the country'€™s economic policy-making authorities may soon come to an end.

This is because Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, the current frontrunner in the presidential election tally count, has signaled his preference for a cabinet filled with people who are more in line with his '€œpro-people'€ economic vision.

Among the names floated by senior officials from Jokowi'€™s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to become finance minister is Sri Adiningsih, an economist from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta.

Jokowi, an UGM graduate, is likely to take a different approach in economic policies as envisioned by the values taught in his university, which is known for adhering to popular economics with an emphasis on agriculture and rural development.

Vice President Boediono is among the noted alumni of that university.

Nevertheless, one member of the '€œFEUI gang'€ in Yudhoyono'€™s administration does not take the issue too seriously.

Chatib, who has served in Yudhoyono'€™s administration since 2011 as BKPM chief, seemingly does not mind if the next president does not entrust him with a position in the Cabinet for the next five years.

'€œI need a break,'€ he told The Jakarta Post, laughing, when asked about his chance of being appointed finance minister in the next administration.'€œ

'€œSince entering the Cabinet, my child has frequently complained that I have been too busy with my work.'€

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