All he knows is that he wanted that Play-Doh set, but never was really sure what to do with it once his parents gave it to him. So he improvises the shape of an animal and when his friends come for playdates he asks them what they think. His friends whisper ideas, making changes here, alterations there, until he ends up with something that resembles a bull but has three legs, two tails and one horn.

In all seriousness, this is what the current state of affairs looks like under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s leadership, now about to conclude the second year of his term. Initially, Indonesia watched carefully, and rather nervously, as Jokowi navigated his first months in office. The country, or at least part of it, was rife with hope and expectations of a leader who was not born out of any political dynasty, with all the potential of improving the welfare of the entire nation.

At least, at that time, Jokowi looked like he knew exactly what to make of Indonesia and where it should be going. That was the bare minimum and that was good enough as a start for us Indonesians.

There are many points that can be made regarding the virtues of the Jokowi government and its performance so far. However, in my observation he doesn’t seem to know what he is doing and where we are all going anymore.

Everything happening surrounding the current administration appears to be oversaturated by a political agenda, and often, so blatantly obvious and venal that it can’t really be called political maneuvers anymore.

It is indeed, naive, to expect a clean government without politics and hidden agendas. This we all know from Frank Underwood in House of Cards. Yet it is reasonable to expect things not to be as much of an incongruent fiasco as shown in recent developments.

The case of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and its leadership has been utterly palpable nonsense, and thus is a good example upon which to pivot the previous observations. Arcandra Tahar was inaugurated as the new energy minister on July 27, replacing Sudirman Said.

It was not enough that this shift in Cabinet positions raised questions as there were no references of logic explaining the rationale behind the move, but just 20 days later Arcandra was relieved of the post. This time the public was told the reason: Arcandra held US citizenship, which he obtained in 2012, and since Indonesia does not recognize dual citizenship, he was then in violation of at least three laws, the Immigration Law, the Citizenship Law and the State Ministers Law.

Many inquiries were launched, but the core of it all was; how could no one have known? To think that an entire country would believe that this was a simple matter of an administrative hiccup is a huge intellectual insult to us Indonesians.

Perhaps then, it had something to do with the fact that in just 20 days Arcandra managed to shave approximately US$15 billion off the investment costs of onshore gas exploration in the Masela Block.

It seems more reasonable to believe someone within or close to Jokowi’s inner circle was at a disadvantage from Arcandra’s aggressive cost-cutting rather than believing no one in the entire presidential team knew that he held a US passport but chose to let it go upon his appointment as minister.

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It is indeed, naive, to expect a clean government without politics and hidden agendas.

Of course, since this is blatant politics, Arcandra might as well have been dismissed for something as absurd as wearing the wrong trousers to office one day if people wanted him off the scene.

In addition to that, the current acting energy minister Luhut Pandjaitan has recently announced a plan to dissolve the ad-hoc units within the ministry that were set up by Sudirman to accelerate certain functions that were not achievable within the traditional structure of the ministry.

These units include the Unit for Acceleration of Development of New and Renewable Energy and the Program Indonesia Terang task force. The former was meant to lead Indonesia’s commitment to an energy mix that accommodates environmental sustainability, while the latter focuses on electrification in remote areas across eastern Indonesia.

These were all functions that were deemed not sufficiently accommodated by traditional structures and would only see benefits if they operated as ad-hoc units, a crucial function considering the massive real-world impacts they have on people.

It is unclear how voiding these tangible benefits amounts to “efficiency”, because current progress is undeniably a result of the delivery of these ad-hoc units.

Whether Luhut as a mere acting minister can rightfully carry out the plan is a legal irrelevance. As mandated by the State Administration Law, an acting official may carry out the duties in accordance with the position that is being filled. However, the limitations of the stipulations are vague.

There are, however, possible regulations that stipulate that an acting official may not make strategic decisions that impact on legal changes related to organization, employment and budget allocations. These are of course legal formal opinions which, if any of the above is an indication, will not fare too well in the reality of politics playing out.

Above all, it is the indecisiveness and inconsistencies that are most concerning. If Jokowi wants to maintain a strong grip on his administration and restore public confidence and actually deliver on his electoral promises, he must not act like that two-year old who cannot decide what to make and opt for whatever patches and modifications are whispered by his friends.

If things remain like this, it would perhaps have been better if his parents had never given him the Play-Doh set in the first place.

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The writer is pursuing his LLM in international banking law and finance at the University of Edinburgh. The views expressed are his own.

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