Erick Thohir's Move To Dismantle BUMN, Which Is Now Considered Dim

JAKARTA - At the beginning of his leadership, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir often made breakthroughs by exposing irregularities that had occurred in state-owned companies. However, this buzz is slowly diminishing and tends to disappear.

Coordinator of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) Donal Fariz regretted that Erick's clean-up breakthroughs are now no longer heard. In fact, this demolition action succeeded in uncovering a number of cases of violations committed by its directors. In addition, this action also succeeded in exposing the waste made by BUMN companies.

"But lately the action tends to disappear and even tends to return to old behavior," said Donal in a discussion entitled 'Questioning Multiple Positions and Tangled BUMNs' which was broadcast on Facebook, Thursday, July 2.

He assessed that old patterns such as the distribution of 'cakes' in state-owned companies were re-occurring. This can be seen because of the spotlight on a number of commissioners who turned out to be from the Bhayangkara Corps, both active and retired.

"In my opinion, this is a behavior that returns to the old pattern," he said, adding that Erick's behavior was then confusing. Because at the beginning he made a breakthrough but later he even distributed the cake.

"We are confused about what the motivation is even though some people see it as political motivation but I see it outside of that," he added.

At the beginning of his tenure, BUMN Minister Erick Thohir exposed a number of irregularities in state-owned companies, one of which was PT Garuda Indonesia.

In December 2019, Erick fired PT Garuda Indonesia President Director I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra or Ari Askhara for smuggling Harley-Davidson components and Brompton bicycles. This decision was made after considering the results of the Audit Committee's examination.

In addition, Erick also mentioned the existence of a health mafia in the midst of handling the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. This happened because the former businessman saw that imports of Indonesian medical devices were very large. However, the continuation of this issue was never heard from again until now.

Donal also highlighted the position of commissioner. According to him, currently filling the position of commissioner is mostly done with the aim of deviating. This deviation, he said, consisted of two factors, namely the rent factor and the political factor.

The rent he means is that this position is used by the elite to secure projects that can benefit themselves.

"It looks like ministers, unscrupulous ministers, large corporations, private parties who put their people in commissioners. The goal, although there is a non-conflict declaration, it is reasonable to suspect that it has something to do with these agendas," said Donal.

As for the political factor, Donald divided it into several reasons. First, the assignment of a commissioner position is carried out to accommodate parties that support the government. This can be seen from the presence of a number of members and former members of political parties supporting the government who have served as commissioners.

Although he did not mention it clearly, Donal gave an example that a candidate failed in the 2019 Legislative Election who became a commissioner at a state-owned bank.

"Second, the politics of remuneration in the form of accommodation for timses, volunteers, and organizations affiliated with the government. This is the most," he said.

The next reason is that the assignment of this position is done to parties or people who are critical and often criticize the government. "In order to be silent, people who are against the government are invited to become inline parties," he said.

Finally, assignment of positions is also carried out to accommodate expert groups. "If he worked outside the state, perhaps the state could not pay him. Now the way he is is accommodated to become part of the government," he explained.

In fact, to become a commissioner in a BUMN there are several things that must be considered, such as consideration of integrity, dedication, understanding the problems of company management, having adequate knowledge in the field of the company. However, looking at the current condition, he assesses that many commissioners are not serious in carrying out their jobs.

"We see that there are commissioners who work seriously but there are those who work in concurrent positions and carry out other roles such as political roles, their social roles to certain mass organizations and various kinds," he concluded.