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span class="inline inline-left">Following recent changes in leadership at a number of state-owned enterprises, the government has announced a management shake-up at the country'€™s largest telecommunications company, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), in hope of a better service for the country.

Alex J Sinaga, who currently leads Telkom'€™s cellular business unit PT Telekomunikasi Seluler (Telkomsel), was appointed on Friday to lead Telkom, replacing Arief Yahya, now Tourism Minister in President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s administration.

Besides Alex, the government appointed another seven industry players to Telkom'€™s board of directors '€” with only one coming from outside the industry '€” in line with State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini Soemarno'€™s desire to prioritize internal candidates for senior management positions in state enterprises.

'€œI also urge state enterprises to become global players that can compete with foreign companies,'€ Rini said.

Alex said that under his leadership, Telkom would have three focuses. '€œWe will boost our cellular business, the Indonesia Digital Network (IDN) project and international expansion,'€ he said.

Telkom'€™s cellular business, which is operated through Telkomsel, has become the market leader in the country'€™s saturated telecommunications market, in which mobile phone penetration has already surpassed 100 percent of the population. Telkomsel had 138 million subscribers as of the third quarter this year, already surpassing its target of 137 million subscribers this year.

Telkom is now at the forefront of the government'€™s US$24 billion-drive to expand the country'€™s broadband capacity over the next five years to improve Internet access.

Telkom, which currently operates in ten countries, would branch out even further internationally, Alex said. '€œWe will be thankful if our dividend payout is slashed so that we can channel the money into business expansion and profit boosting.'€

According to data obtained by The Jakarta Post, Alex got 68.79 percent '€œyes'€ votes and 28.14 percent '€œno'€ votes at an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Friday. Abstentions accounted for 3.07 percent of the votes.

State-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina and flag carrier Garuda Indonesia have recently also seen major management shake-ups, as Jokowi'€™s administration wants the right men in the right place to lead efficient expansion of state enterprises in Southeast Asia'€™s largest economy.

While the newly installed Telkom directors are mostly Telkom employees and telecommunications veterans, the government made a controversial move by appointing Dolfie Othniel Fredric Ali '€” a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which backed Jokowi'€™s presidential bid '€” to the firm'€™s board of commissioners. Dolfie was a member of the House of Representatives for the period of 2009 to 2014.

SOEs expert Said Didu said that having politicians on the board of commissioners of a state enterprise had precedent, citing a politician from the National Mandate Party as an example.

Existing regulations did not allow the government to appoint members of party boards of executives as commissioners at state enterprises, he added. '€œThe regulation, however, doesn'€™t prohibit the government from appointing members of political parties [as commissioners].'€

The decision was acceptable if the politician fulfilled his duties independently, but it would be harmful if he were used as a tool to profit illicitly from Telkom, Said argued.

Rini, who was Jokowi'€™s transition team leader during the election campaign, has repeatedly said that she wanted to keep all state enterprises free from political intervention.