T

he former economic ministers of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are returning to normal life, following a busy stint steering Southeast Asia'€™s largest economy through a challenging external environment.

'€œBack to campus'€ was the theme for former finance minister Chatib Basri, former minister of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Armida Alisjahbana and former tourism and creative industry minister Mari Elka Pangestu.

An academic-turned-bureaucrat, Chatib still secretly retained his love of campus life.

During his time as finance minister, he would hold a small lecture session with journalists every Friday afternoon in the Finance Ministry'€™s press office.

There, his staff would prepare a white board and a marker, which would be used by Chatib to explain economic theories and other issues in fiscal policy to the journalists in attendance '€” just like what a lecturer does with his students.

When it was announced that Chatib'€™s name was not included in President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s economic team, a student in the University of Indonesia'€™s Faculty of Economics (FEUI) mentioned Chatib on Twitter, saying that his classmates were excited about welcoming him back as a lecturer.

'€œSee you in the classroom,'€ Chatib replied to the student.

Mari, a respected economist in the field of international trade, also said that she would return to classroom teaching. The same went for Armida, who said that she would focus her life on being an economics professor in the University of Padjajaran (Unpad).

'€œIf someday you wish to ask for comments or economics analysis, I would be available anytime. I'€™m now a free woman!'€ Armida told The Jakarta Post.

Meanwhile, it is '€œback in business'€ time for former coordinating economic minister Chairul Tanjung and former industry minister MS Hidayat.

Chairul, who succeeded in breaking the deadlock between the government and US mining giants Freeport-McMoran and Newmont Mining Corp. during his five-month stint as minister, said that he planned to return to his company, CT Corp., a diversified conglomerate with business units in banking, media and natural resources, among others.

MS Hidayat, a businessman who is also a politician with the Golkar Party, said he will soon be directly involved in the day-to-day operations of MSH Group, which focuses on the property sector. '€œI will now be in my office again, welcoming the visits of my political and business colleagues,'€ Hidayat said.

Former trade minister Muhammad Lutfi said he wanted to return to the private sector, but first planned to take a lengthy holiday in Japan, a country where he previously served as an ambassador. '€œBecoming a minister is exhausting; I just could not satisfy all parties,'€ he said.

The cohort of professionals handpicked by Yudhoyono were responsible for Indonesia'€™s glittering economic achievement in the past decade, analysts have said.

Yudhoyono led the country in a challenging period when the global economy bumped into a full-fledged US financial crisis in 2008 and when Indonesia'€™s main trading partners, such as China, Europe and Japan, were facing significant slowdowns in their economies.

Impressively, Indonesia managed to maintain strong economic growth amid the broad-based slowdown experienced in other countries. The growth of gross domestic product averaged 5.9 percent from 2005 to 2013, well higher than the global average, winning the archipelago a place in the G20 group of the world'€™s largest economies.

Nadya Natahadibrata
contributed to the story