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With charlatan gone, we can be serious about handling COVID-19
When President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo delivered his uncharacteristically fiery speech in front of his ministers back in June this year, the harsh tone might as well have been directed at Terawan and Terawan alone.
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President Joko Widodo announces six new ministers as the cabinet reshuffle at the Merdeka Palace on Tuesday, December 22. Sakti Wahyu Trenggono (L), Budi Gunadi Sadikin (2L), Tri Rismaharini (3L), Sandiaga Uno (3R), Yaqut Cholil Quomas (2R), Muhammad Lutfi (R) will be sworn in on Wednesday, December 23. (Presidential Palace/Muchlis Jr.)
I
t was a question of when, rather than if, although it should not have taken this long. But when it finally happened, a huge collective sigh of relief could be heard around the nation.
For former health minister Terawan Agus Putranto, the writing was on the wall for some time. When President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo delivered his uncharacteristically fiery speech in front of his ministers back in June this year, the harsh tone might as well have been directed at Terawan and Terawan alone.
This threat was certainly made with Terawan in mind: “I will take any steps necessary, including extraordinary ones, for our 267 million people,” he said. “[I might] disband agencies. [I might] reshuffle [the Cabinet]. I have considered many options."
Terawan’s performance as an administrator was so abysmal that the President scolded him for a lack of skill in spending money. “We have budgeted Rp 75 trillion [US$5.28 billion] but only 1.5 percent has been disbursed,” President Jokowi said in that speech.
The money in question should have gone to doctors, nurses and health workers who risked their lives treating COVID-19 patients, but thanks to Terawan’s poor leadership these frontline workers had not received assistance as promised by Jokowi himself in March.
But this was par for the course for Terawan, whose approach to the crisis appeared to be fiddling while Rome burned; all day, all the time. And it is unfortunate that while Indonesia was dealing with the biggest public health crisis caused by once-in-a-century pandemic, the country happened to have the most unfit health minister in recent memory.
