H

ome Minister Tjahjo Kumolo says his ministry never issued a policy restricting any government offices from holding conferences and meetings at hotels, but he advised they be held in daytime.

Previously, Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani protested against the minister instructing provincial administrations not to organize meetings at hotels during the association’s anniversary gala dinner earlier this week. Hariyadi said such a policy would hurt the hotel industry across the country.

“I never issued any regulation restricting meetings at hotels,” the minister said on Tuesday, as quoted by Antara. He added that most meetings organized by his ministry were in fact held at hotels.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo responded to the complaint by immediately calling on Tjahjo to retract his statement. “The minister told me the issue had been settled. [The instruction] won’t materialize,” Jokowi said.

Tjahjo said he had told his subordinates to issue internal standard procedures for organizing meetings with regional administration officials to discuss regional budgets.

The instruction was issued in the wake of an alleged assault against two Corruption Eradication Commission investigators at the Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta, where officials from the Papua provincial administration, including Governor Lukas Enembe, were holding a meeting with Papua Legislative Council members to discuss the province’s draft 2019 budget.