JAKARTA The appointment of Maroef Sjamsoeddin as President Director of Mining Industry Indonesia or MIND ID is believed by a number of circles to show the thick interference of political elites in BUMN.
MIND ID recently reshuffled its board of directors and commissioners. Changes in the board of commissioners were monitored from the official website on Tuesday (4/3/2025), a day after the General Meeting of Shareholders (GMS).
Apart from the commissioners, the board of directors has also changed. Maroef Sjamsoeddin was appointed as President Director of MIND ID, replacing Hendi Prio Santoso.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Putri Viola said that the replacement of the President Director of MIND ID aims to rotate the company's leaders, something that usually happens in a company.
"Why then was Mr. Maroef chosen? We saw flying hours, experiences, they were quite capable," he said.
The flying hours or Maroef experience in the mining world are actually not very classy. He has only served as President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia from 2015-2016.
Maroef is known to have been in the military and intelligence world for a long time. He is a retired Indonesian Air Force officer. His last rank is Marshal Muda. During his 34 years of career in the military and intelligence world, Maroef held many positions.
He was once Commander of the 465 Paskhas Squadron, Director of Counter Separatist State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Indonesian Defense Attache for Brazil, Director of Counter-Separatist BIN, Staff of Defense and Security Experts (Sahli Hankam) BIN, and Deputy Head of BIN for the 2011 to 2014 period.
The public concern of Maroef Sjamsoeddin's appointment was not only due to his brief position at Freeport. The man who was born in 1970 is Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin's younger brother, the Minister of Defense in the Red and White Cabinet.
When Prabowo Subianto was still a presidential candidate, Sjafrie joined the Advisory Board of the National Campaign Team (TKN). Bhima Yudhistira, Executive Director of the Centerof Economic and Law Studies (Celios), said changing positions in MIND ID was important for President Prabowo.
"He seems to want to maintain strategic positions and fill them with his closest people," said Bhima.
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According to Bhima, the appointment of Maroef as President Director of MIND ID shows the thick interference of the political elite. That way, it is clear that the interests of groups in managing SOEs are more dominant than professional interests.
"Well, this is what worries us that the entry of Maroef Sjamsoeddin seems to want to accelerate the transfer of assets (MIND ID) to Danantara. So, Danantara can manage various assets of MIND ID to be used as a new debt guarantee," said Bhima.
Bhima said the government through Danantara wanted to encourage MIND ID to enter high-risk investment sectors, such as coal gasification. Whereas based on a Celios study, the coal gasification project in Indonesia is not economically realistic.
With the entry of Maroef, Bhima assesses that it will make it easier for Danantara to control MIND ID. This does not only apply to MIND ID, but also for other state-owned companies, which sooner or later will be under the control of the Danantara.
When the leadership of a state-owned company has a close relationship with the political elite, according to Bhima, it is easier for him to be controlled by the power of certain groups. That's when Danantara's independence disappeared.
"This is not in line with the President's will. (The appointment of leaders of state-owned companies) without taking into account aspects of professionalism, good governance, and business risks," he continued.
The doubt about Danantara's independence has actually been raised for a long time. According to him, it will be difficult for Danantara to become an independent investment institution such as Temasek in Singapore, because the helm of Danantara is filled with KMP political elites.
Bhima also doubts that there will be large investors who want to invest in the Danantara if he and the SOEs he carries are led by people who have political relations or even closeness to the political elite.
"It's a bit difficult, yes, with the appointment of the top leadership as it is now. Unless, the government immediately disallowed. This means that there are GMSs, making reshuffles again, filled with more professional ones. As long as that doesn't happen, investors' trust will also be reduced," said Bhima.
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