Public Criticism Of Sri Mulyani's Request To Remove, MPR Chair: Take It Easy, It's Been Twisted Too Far

Photo: BPMI Setpres/Lukas

JAKARTA - Chairman of the MPR Bambang Soesatyo relaxed response to public scrutiny against the request of the leadership of the MPR RI to remove the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani. Sri Mulyani was previously considered to have disrespected state institutions because she did not attend the two invitations of the MPR RI. According to Bamsoet, the MPR's intention to ask President Joko Widodo to fire Sri Mulyani has been interpreted differently. Recently, the public has judged the MPR to be cranky because the budget was cut by the Minister of Finance. "Relax, because it has been twisted too far. The main problem is not that," said Bamsoet to VOI, Friday, December 3. Bamsoet emphasized that the main point conveyed by the MPR leadership was not about the budget. However, more to his commitment as a leader of an institution that was officially invited by a high state institution. In fact, said Bamsoet, President Jokowi, who is the boss of the Minister of Finance, could attend the MPR's invitation. "This is a matter of respect for fellow state institutions. The president always maintains relations between institutions," said the former chairman of the DPR. However, the Golkar politician admitted that he was in the middle of fixing this misunderstanding. However, regarding the discussion with the Minister of Finance, Bamsoet did not comment.

"And it turns out that there was a miscommunication. I'm aligning it," said Bamsoet.

Previously, the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati had opened her voice regarding the complaint from the MPR RI leadership regarding her absence from the invitation to the meeting to discuss the MPR budget. Through an upload to the Instagram account @smindrawati, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani admitted that there were two invitations, the first on 27 July 2021 along with the president's internal meeting which had to be attended so that the deputy minister represented the MPR. Second, on September 28, 2021, at the same time as the Banggar DPR meeting to discuss the 2022 State Budget, the presence of the Minister of Finance is mandatory and very important. As a result, the meeting with the MPR was decided to be postponed. "Regarding the MPR budget. As is known in 2021, Indonesia will face a surge in COVID-19 due to the Delta variant. The entire KL budget must be refocused 4 times, the goal is to help deal with COVID-19," Sri Mulyani said in a statement quoted on Wednesday, December 1 . Sri Mulyani explained, COVID-19 assistance with patient claims that jumped very high, acceleration of vaccination, and implementation of PPKM in various regions. The budget, said Sri Mulyani, is also focused on helping the poor by increasing social assistance, helping subsidize workers' wages and helping MSMEs due to not being able to work with the implementation of PPKM Level 4.