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The week in review: Let's work? Stop the fighting
AntaraPresident Joko âJokowiâ Widodo came up with a short and catchy slogan, Ayo Kerja (Letâs Work), to mark Indonesiaâs 70th Independence Day anniversary on Aug
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President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo came up with a short and catchy slogan, Ayo Kerja (Let's Work), to mark Indonesia's 70th Independence Day anniversary on Aug. 17. It is appropriate and consistent with the name of his team, the Working Cabinet, and the 'Work, Work, Work' theme of his presidential inauguration speech in October.
Here is the problem: His government has hardly lived up to the slogan. These past 10 months we have witnessed a public spectacle of endless political infighting, initially between Jokowi and opposition parties in the House of Representatives, but lately more between different factions within the government.
The nation's political elite ' inside and outside the executive branch of government ' is squandering so much time, energy and resources fighting one another instead of addressing many of the problems facing the country, including in particular arresting the economic decline.
Any hope that the mini Cabinet reshuffle this month would improve its performance was dashed this week. The recruitment of Rizal Ramli, ever a staunch critic of the government past and present, as coordinating maritime affairs minister may have turned out to be a huge strategic mistake.
Rizal quickly earned the reputation as an enfant terrible, picking fights with fellow team members, including Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Early this week, following a meeting of all four coordinating ministers, they each went public to pledge better coordination. Later that same day, however, Rizal not only criticized the government's ambitious plan to build enough power plants to generate an additional 35,000 megawatts of electricity by 2019, he also called for dropping the plan altogether and challenged the Vice President to a public debate to settle the matter.
Rizal had earlier picked on Garuda Indonesia, which is well outside his domain (unless Garuda is a shipping company), by telling the national carrier to cancel its plan to buy 30 Airbus jets because it makes no economic sense.
This put him in direct confrontation with Rini Sumarno, the minister for state enterprises, who rebuffed him for interfering in her work. Garuda is a publicly listed company answerable to the public and not only to the government. It could do with less government intervention.
It is unclear how far Jokowi can go to put a stop to Rizal's eccentricities. The President has ordered Rizal to focus on cutting down the bureaucratic waiting time for customs to clear goods in ports, a problem other ministers in the past failed to resolve, and set an October deadline. Will this keep Rizal busy and stop him from attacking fellow Cabinet members? We'll see.
Since factionalism besets Jokowi's presidency, Rizal's erratic behavior raises questions about whose interests he represents. Who does he answer to if not the President? This would be fodder for speculation among many political buffs, but the 'Let's Work' slogan risks becoming the butt of social media jokes unless the President prevails over his own team and starts delivering.
The President should tell his Cabinet, including the newcomers, to stop fighting. And particularly for one or two of them who can't control their mouths, to just shut up.
It's heartening to see that some of the Cabinet newcomers have rolled up their sleeves and started work.
Trade minister Thomas Trikasih Lembong's first order of the day was to allow imports of basic foodstuffs, including beef, to ease prices. Earlier decisions to stop imports in the name of self-reliance made no sense when the nation could not meet domestic demand. Thomas also ordered data be improved on production and consumption, noting that flawed figures led to wrong policies.
Coordinating Political, Legal & Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan took up Jokowi's promise, made in his State of the Nation address, to improve the government's policy in Papua and also to address questions of past human rights abuses.
The crash of the ATR 42 plane operated by privately owned Trigana Air on the eve of the Independence Day anniversary was another reminder of unfinished work on airline safety. With the exceptions of Garuda Indonesia and AirAsia Indonesia, no Indonesian airline operators can fly to Europe or the United States because they fail to meet safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). These airlines may not be flying to Europe or America, but this is no reason to ignore safety measures.
Many accidents in public transportation, and not just air crashes, could and should have been prevented if the nation had paid more attention to safety aspects and striven to meet the minimum prescribed international standards. The nation in the past decade has experienced a boom in air passengers thanks to the mushrooming of budget operators. It is the government's job to ensure that these operators observe the rules on safety and there is no better way than by striving to meet the ICAO standards.
Yes, we agree with President Jokowi that Indonesia has got a lot to offer and that the nation needs to work harder to realize its economic potentials. But the slogan Ayo Kerja should first be addressed to his team. The public spectacle of endless infighting has become too tiring and too dull to follow.
' Endy Bayuni
