To avoid accusations of sharing the positions of state companies after the presidential election, Jokowi must remind Erick Thohir

JAKARTA, KOMPAS President Joko Widodo was asked to remind Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir to refrain from making unnecessary changes, including replacing commissioners to accommodate Prabowo Subianto's supporters. Gibran Rakabuming Raka and those close to President Joko Widodo. Because this step actually triggered public speculation about the existence of splits after the 2024 presidential election.

The massive allocation of positions of commissioners and directors of BUMN subsidiaries to supporters of Prabowo-Gibran and those close to President Jokowi has recently come under the spotlight. Not only members of the Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team (TKN), but the position of BUMN commissioner was also awarded to high-ranking political parties supporting the elected presidential and vice-presidential couple.

Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta, A Bakir Ihsan, contacted in Jakarta, Thursday (13/6/2024), assessed the phenomenon of the change of commissioners at the end of the The Jokowi administration and the transition to the Prabowo administration tended to be based on political interests. If the change of commissioners continues, there are fears that it will further fuel speculation that there will be a division of posts after the presidential election is over.

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Therefore, according to Bakir, President Jokowi must remind Erick Thohir to stop the turnover of commissioners of public companies. “At the end of the term, one must refrain from any changes because it is neither beneficial nor possible for the public interest,” Bakir said.

He suspects that the recent replacement of commissioners in several state-owned company subsidiaries is an initiative by Erick to please Presidents Jokowi and Prabowo. Ironically, President Jokowi seems to allow it and even enjoy it.

“People who receive benefits will continue to try to retain them by making the person granting them comfortable and happy, even with various means that sacrifice ethics, merit systems and the public interest,” Bakir said .

At the end of their term, they should refrain from making any changes as this would not be time efficient and would not bring benefits to the public interest.

Bakir hopes that the various measures taken by the Jokowi government are based on objective considerations and political interests. Whatever the reason, in the midst of a government transition, the government should focus more on resolving unfinished programs rather than reshuffling positions.

“The measure (the clientelism policy) is simple: do they have the necessary capacities that public enterprises need? Otherwise, it is rather a distribution of positions which does not contribute to the improvement of public enterprises, even what could weigh them down,” Bakir said.

Based on the findings of Compass, a number of names were recorded as holding commissioner positions in a number of BUMN subsidiaries, for example, TKN Expert Council member Fuad Bawazier as senior commissioner of BUMN holding industry Indonesian mining (Mind Id); Vice President of TKN who is also Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Grace Natalie as Commissioner of BUMN Mind Id; Deputy Treasurer of TKN who is also a member of the Gerindra Advisory Board, Simon Aloysius Mantiri, as Chairman Commissioner of PT Pertamina; and TKN Vice President Condro Kirono as independent commissioner of PT Pertamina.

There are also members of the House of Representatives from the Gerindra Party faction, Siti Nurizka Puteri Jaya, as President Commissioner of PT Pupuk Sriwidjaja (Pusri) Palembang; former PSI member who is also a special staff member of the Minister of Public Enterprises, Tsamara Amany, as PT Commissioner Perkebunan Nusantara III; the wife of TKN Commander Muhammad Arief Rosyid, Siti Zahra Aghnia, as an independent commissioner of Pertamina Patra Niaga; and former supporter of Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD who became supporter of Prabowo-Gibran, Prabu Revolution, as an independent commissioner of PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional.

In addition, those close to President Jokowi who hold positions as directors of state-owned company subsidiaries include Bagaskara Ikhlasulla Arif. The child of President Jokowi's younger sister, Titik Relawati, or Jokowi's nephew, was appointed head of non-governmental relations at PT Pertamina. Another nephew of Jokowi, Joko Priyambodo, was also appointed director of marketing and operations at PT Patra Logistik. Joko Priyambodo, son-in-law of President Jokowi's sister Hidayati, has only worked at Pertamina for seven years.

Let the people judge

Separately, Gerindra Deputy Speaker Habiburokhman, met on Thursday (13/6/2024) at the Parliament Complex in Jakarta, said that agitation regarding the appointment of commissioners is a commonly encountered phenomenon at the start of a new government . He mentioned that since Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration until Jokowi's administration, such things have always been controversial.

“That means the people will judge, later the people will judge whether it meets the criteria, the quality, later it can be judged by the people,” Habiburokhman said.

He also disagrees if the person occupying the position of commissioner is considered incompetent. For example, he cites Siti Nurizka, his colleague at Commission III of the DPR. According to Habiburokhman, Siti Nurizka is very familiar with legal and business issues because she was a corporate lawyer before becoming a member of the DPR.

“So, Ms. Siti Nurizka must be very familiar with the position assigned to her as Chief Commissioner of Pupuk Sriwidjaja. In addition, she is from South Sumatra. So she understands the problems of PT Pupuk Sriwidjaja very well .However, let's see his performance after starting his work,” he said.

Also read: What's behind state commissioners' split positions?

Then, Habiburokhman also refuted allegations regarding the incompetence of Siti Zahra Aghnia during her appointment as the independent commissioner of Pertamina Patra Niaga. According to him, although she has a degree in interior design engineering, Zahra Aghnia has a deep understanding of business management issues and has achieved success in the business world.

“Well, architects have been very successful in the business world. There are also architecture graduates who have been successful in government, like Mr. Ridwan Kamil. We will see later,” he said.