Agus Gumiwang Inaugurated As Social Minister In Today's Memory, August 24, 2018

Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita after being inaugurated as Minister of Social Affairs by President Joko Widodo at the State Palace on August 24, 2018. (Indonesian State Secretariat)

JAKARTA Memories today, six years ago, August 24, 2018, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) officially inaugurated Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita as Minister of Social Affairs (Social). Agus is considered capable of bringing the Ministry of Social Affairs to a better direction.

Previously, the position of the Minister of Social Affairs often changed. The Minister of Social Affairs was originally held by Khofifah Indar Pawansa. Khofifah resigned because she wanted to run for cagub in the East Java Pilkada. The replacement is Idrus Marham too. The difference is Idrus being a corruption suspect.

Indonesian politics is unique. Ministerial-class officials are only willing to resign to become regional leaders in the same class as governors. The decline in class is not new. Khofifah Indar Parawansa has done it.

His position as Minister of Social Affairs is fine. He has been appointed as minister of Jokowi's government since 2014. Khofifah in the middle of the road actually attracted to participate in the 2018 East Java Pilkada political contestation. He then paired with Emil Dardak as Cagub and Cawagub in East Java.

Khofifah did not want a conflict of interest to occur. He then decided to resign from the position of Minister of Social Affairs after being officially appointed by the General Elections Commission (KPU) in January 2018. President Jokowi immediately replaced Khofifah with a seasoned politician, Idrus Marham.

Jokowi considers Idrus to be able to maintain the positive trend of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Idrus' leadership was initially predicted to be long. However, Idrus actually stumbled upon a corruption case in the middle of the road. Idrus is suspected of accepting a bribe of IDR 500 million which is part of the commitment fee of 2.5 percent of the value of the cooperation contract project for the construction of the Riau-1 PLTU.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) then named Idrus a suspect. Idrus then chose to resign. He did not want to impose Jokowi's government. As a result, Idrus only served as Minister of Social Affairs for less than seven months. This condition tarnished the face of the Golkar Party.

"Today, I went to the President at 10.30 WIB. I did this after yesterday I received a notification letter regarding my investigation regarding the case carried out by Enny and Koco. Based on the letter, I took steps, so I went to the President to submit a letter of resignation as a form of my moral responsibility," said Idrus as quoted on the Kompas website, August 24, 2018.

President Jokowi was confused about finding a replacement. Jokowi fortunately has a loyalist from the Golkar Party. Agus Gumiwang, his name. Agus was fired by Golkar for supporting Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla during the 2014 election.

However, his good name was immediately returned as Golkar had docked with the government. Agus Gumiwang was immediately contacted by the Head of Golkar, Airlangga Hartarto on August 24, 2018, to get ready to be appointed minister.

Agus also prepared as needed and immediately launched to be inaugurated to the State Palace. Finally, President Jokowi officially appointed Agus as Minister of Social Affairs. Jokowi hopes that Agus can bring the Ministry of Social Affairs to a better direction.

"The chronology, today at 11.30 I was called by the General Chair, when I was getting ready for Friday. He said that I was asked to get ready to wear a suit and wear a cap, I was asked to come to his office. So I arrived at his office around 13.00. Then indeed the Palace protocol has also reported me around 13.15 WIB," Agus said as quoted by the COMPASS.com page, August 24, 2018.