Don't Worry President, Jokowi Said About TWK: If Luhut Said This, It Might Make More Sense

President Joko Widodo (Instagram/@jokowi)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) responded to the dismissal of 57 employees of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) who failed the national insight test (TWK). Jokowi does not want to be associated. He says never mind president. Has it been like that all this time? Isn't it everything Luhut? Instead, we question Jokowi's presence in policy making.

So, yesterday, Wednesday, September 15, the KPK announced the honorable dismissal of 57 employees. They are 51 people who were previously declared not to have passed the TWK and five people who missed the state defense training. On 30 September they have to leave the Red and White House. The officials then asked Jokowi for help.

Through a letter, they asked why Jokowi was not moved by the dynamics that threaten the eradication of corruption. The letters were written by the employees and put in a box that would be handed over to the President. The writing was done in the midst of a peaceful protest at the KPK Building C1. In addition to the 57 employees, the action was attended by anti-corruption activists.

"Our good Mr President, TWK at the KPK is very problematic and hurts us as a people. But for some reason Mr. President has not been moved to solve this problem," the letter said.

Jokowi, on another occasion, responded to public pressure to intervene regarding problematic TWK. Jokowi said the reason he did not comment much about the careers of 57 employees and the fate of eradicating corruption at the KPK was because he respected the decisions of the Supreme Court (MA) and the Constitutional Court (MK).

Jokowi also emphasized that he did not want to be associated with this issue. Accountability, said Jokowi, lies with the Ministry of Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform (Kemenpan-RB). "Don't take anything to the President. This is a constitutional courtesy. I have to respect the ongoing legal process," Jokowi said.

Anything to the President, is that right?

Nothing to the president, said Jokowi. Has it been like that all this time? Isn't it everything Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan? After all, it's not difficult considering how minor Jokowi's role is in managing the country, which even to answer a simple question in an international forum about investment, Jokowi doesn't answer it himself. He threw it at the minister.

The president's authority, of course, is to delegate tasks to his assistants. But when today he spoke as if everything was done by him, isn't it a little ticklish? Indonesia has experienced at least two of the most significant waves of COVID-19. The two incidents forced the government to take strategic steps.

Not Jokowi. Luhut, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menkomarves) who was in command at that time. Luhut's first time in charge of handling COVID-19 was in September 2020. Luhut and the then Head of the COVID-19 Task Force, Doni Monardo, were responsible for leading the handling of the pandemic in eight provinces.

Within two weeks Luhut implemented a locally-based pandemic control strategy in DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, North Sumatra, South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan and Papua. Luhut involved the TNI and Polri. Restrictions are carried out in a small scale in 83 thousand villages or RT/RW. When the second wave hit last June, Luhut returned to command.

Menkomarves Luhut Binsar Panjaitan (Instagram/@luhutpandjaitan)

Trisakti University public policy analyst, Trubus Rahadiansyah views that there is a leadership problem in this regime. This can be seen from the many miscoordination and overlapping roles of institutions/ministry. All of this happened because Jokowi did not play the role of a leader in the government. In the context of handling COVID-19, everything is clear.

It's not just the fact that Luhut is the most prominent. We can see a lot of coordination issues and overlap in COVID-19 policies. For example, where is the role of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) in handling COVID-19? Doesn't Law (UU) Number 6 of 2018 concerning Health Quarantine mandate the role of the Ministry of Health?

"It was the Ministry of Health that drowned. That's a health quarantine, it should be the Ministry of Health. It turns out that it's not the Ministry of Health. That's what stands out from other ministries, including the Ministry of Home Affairs. PPKM only uses the Ministry of Home Affairs," said Trubus, contacted by VOI, Thursday, September 16.

Or there is no need for leadership in policy making. In a forum at America's Brookings Institution, Jokowi was asked by one of the forum participants about the steps taken by Indonesia to make it easier for foreign investors to invest their capital. Instead of explaining, Jokowi threw at the then Trade Minister Thomas Lembong.

"I want to test my ministry (I want to test my minister's knowledge). Please answer the question (please respond to the Minister)," said Jokowi with a distinctive smile while pointing at Thomas Lembong. "But don't speak longer than my speech ( but not longer than my speech)," continued Jokowi. Thomas Lembong immediately responded and answered the question using English. "Thank you Mr President," said Thomas, quoted from the Sindonews report.

Satire mural for Jokowi (Source: Special)

The lack of Jokowi's leadership has become a long-standing concern for Trubus. From Trubus's point of view, so often he sees the public policies created by this regime as absent from Jokowi's role. "If I see that Jokowi's policy making is more determined by a group of people. It looks like it. We can call it oligarchy," said Trubus.

And regarding TWK, according to Trubus, this chaos occurred because of Jokowi's indecisiveness. But a bit confusing too, indeed. Absent in policy making, but the President is very active in the realm of execution. For social assistance, for example.

Jokowi often comes directly to provide assistance to the community. Not only about Jokowi. Trubus said that this uncontrollable government could not be separated from the absence of Vice President Maruf Amin's role. "Jokowi's leadership before and now is very different."

"In the past, the role of Mr. JK (Jusuf Kalla) was still a lot of coordination, relatively okay. After all, the opposition was still there. Now it doesn't exist because the vice president's role is lacking and the role of the opposition is not there. The oligarchy takes over," said Trubus.

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