The appointment of former anti-graft campaigner Teten Masduki as the new presidential chief of staff, replacing Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has been hailed as a smart move by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo.

State Secretary Pratikno said Teten was the right man for the job given that he had been familiar with Jokowi'€™s leadership style and the workings of the Presidential Palace.

'€œAll this time, Teten has been working as a member of the President'€™s special staff [in the communication team]. Teten has been helping Jokowi in many areas and on different issues. I believe he [Jokowi] took that into account,'€ Pratikno said after Teten'€™s inauguration on Wednesday.

Political communications expert Gun Gun Heryanto said Teten could be able to play his new role in managing strategic issues, monitoring Jokowi'€™s priority program, and most importantly, building political communication between the President and other institutions, including political parties and the public.

'€œTeten'€™s appointment is reasonable given that Teten has been helping Jokowi since the presidential campaign. Also, Jokowi needs someone he can trust for such a position,'€ Gun Gun said.

Teten'€™s good communication skills and his connection to the civil society groups could help him deal with pressures from politicians, Gun Gun said.

Until Teten'€™s appointment on Wednesday the presidential chief of staff position was held by Luhut, who was promoted by Jokowi to become the Coordinating Political, Legal & Security Affairs Minister last month.

Jokowi'€™s move in establishing the Office of the Presidential Staff, with Luhut first at the helm, appeared to be an effort to gain more control over his government three months after he took office in October last year.

Jokowi also set up the new body as a tool to counterbalance political pressure coming from outside the State Palace, given that Jokowi was an outsider to national politics and even within his own Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

During his tenure, Luhut, the former advisor to Jokowi'€™s presidential election campaign team who was a veteran in politics and a retired general, had held a number of meetings with various political figures at his office at the Palace complex.

Effendi Gazali, a political communications expert, said Teten could effectively perform the job that had been given to Luhut.

'€œTeten is able to consolidate how communication should be done with those outside of the Palace. Also, he can play role as a counterbalance [to the political pressures from outside the Palace],'€ he said.

Pratikno said that there was no change in the roles and functions of the presidential chief of staff as had been regulated in the 2015 Presidential Regulation on the Office of the Presidential Staff.

Teten, who was part of Jokowi'€™s inner circle during his presidential campaign, first knew Jokowi when the former Surakarta mayor won the Bung Hatta Anti-Corruption Award in 2010. Teten organized the competition.

In 2013, Teten ran in West Java'€™s gubernatorial election in 2013 and lost to Ahmad Heryawan, a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician.

Teten started his work as an activist when he joined the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) as the labor division head in 1990. In 1998, Teten led the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) that he and his fellow YLBHI activists founded in the same year.

Teten, who was also a former Transparency International Indonesia (TII) secretary-general, received the 2005 Philippine'€™s Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service after the board of trustees recognized his anti-corruption stance and efforts to push for clean governance.

Teten was inaugurated as the presidential chief of staff in haste without prior announcement, the way Jokowi inaugurated Luhut in December last year.
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