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Good governance icon Mar’ie dies at 77
Mar’ie Muhammad - JPIndonesia has lost one of its finest minds
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Mar’ie Muhammad - JP
Indonesia has lost one of its finest minds. Former finance minister Mar’ie Muhammad died of pneumonia at the age of 77 at the National Brain Center Hospital in East Jakarta on Sunday.
Mar’ie was widely recognized for years of persistence in promoting clean governance during the authoritarian regime of former president Soeharto. His determination to fight corruption earned Mar’ie the title of “Mr. Clean” in the eyes of the public.
He held one of the toughest jobs in Indonesia when he served as finance minister while the country was facing a traumatic financial crisis in 1997, which led to mass protests that put an end to Soeharto’s presidency of 32 years in 1998.
“We have lost one of our best figures, known as Mr. Clean when he served as finance minister,” Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Sunday.
Former vice president and Bank Indonesia (BI) governor Boediono said Mar’ie had done a great job at maintaining the stability of the country’s economy during the 1997 crisis.
“I observed his hard work when I worked at Bank Indonesia,” Boediono said on Sunday, as quoted by
kompas.com.
Mar’ie served as finance minister from 1993 to 1998.
Born in April 1939 in Surabaya, East Java, Mar’ie started his career as an official at the Finance Ministry in 1969. He worked at the Directorate of State Financial Supervision until 1972.
Between 1972 and 1988, he served as the director of a state-owned enterprise. He returned to the ministry in 1988 when he was appointed as the director general of taxation, a post he held until 1993.
His notable decisions as minister of finance included his rejection of the discretionary fund and the traveling budget for civil servants, which he said were a burden on the state budget. He also got credit for reforming the non-performing loans system.
After five years of Mar’ie’s service as finance minister, Indonesia was held up as a regional example of a country with a good economic system.
After leaving his career as a bureaucrat in 1998, Mar’ie still actively dedicated his time to humanitarian efforts. He served as the chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) from 1999 to 2009.
He also chaired some NGOs, including the Indonesian Transparency Society (MTI) and the Indonesia Humanitarian Committee (KKI).
People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker and National Mandate Party chairman Zulkifli Hasan expressed his condolences on the passing of Mar’ie.
“The nation has lost a clean and humble anticorruption figure. Goodbye, Mr. Clean,” he said via Twitter.
