Luhut Assigned By Jokowi To Manage Cooking Oil, Observer: As If Playing The Role Of Prime Minister

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan/doc via ANTARA

JAKARTA - The new assignment of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan to deal with the cooking oil issue has been in the spotlight. Because previously, Luhut was also trusted by President Joko Widodo to be the Chair of the Water Resources Council.

Political observer from Al Azhar University Indonesia, Andriadi Achmad, assessed that Luhut's appointment to deal with the cooking oil issue was too excessive and institutionally unethical.

Because, according to him, Luhut has many tasks that do not match his background as Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investments. In fact, Luhut has even been called the minister of all affairs.

"Furthermore, LBP (Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, ed) seems to play the role of Prime Minister. Jokowi should have appointed another minister who matches his background to take care of the cooking oil problem," Andriadi told VOI, Tuesday, May 24.

Andriadi assessed that the new task assigned to Luhut further showed that Jokowi had more confidence in the senior Golkar politician than ministers from the PDIP which is his party.

"Jokowi's appointment of a new assignment for LBP shows that Jokowi has more faith in LBH than others," he said.

According to Andriadi, Jokowi's trust in Luhut has also widened the PDIP's dislike of the Java-Bali Emergency PPKM Coordinator. Moreover, Luhut has often been 'bugged' by bull party cadres.

"Later I read that LBH was attacked by PDIP cadres like Masinton Pasaribu. It indirectly shows that there is disharmony between PDIP and LBH, Jokowi's main supporter," said Andriadi.

In fact, what has recently been warmed by Jokowi seems to indicate that he does not support the champion of the PDIP, Puan Maharani, to become a presidential candidate in 2024.

"Not to mention that in a recent meeting, there was a statement indicating that Jokowi favored one of the presidential candidates, Ganjar Pranowo, rather than Puan Maharani," he said.

With the emergence of Jokowi's signal, Andriadi predicts that towards the end of the government period, the relationship between the head of state and the PDI-P will be increasingly strained.

Jokowi, said Andriadi, will probably be closer to Luhut's camp. Moreover, Golkar is considered to be carrying the Governor of Central Java, Ganjar Pranowo.

"My prediction is that in the two years before the end of President Jokowi's term in office, President Jokowi will be more distant with PDIP as his main supporter and closer to the LBH camp and presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo," concluded Andriadi.

President Jokowi again gave a special task to the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. This time, Luhut was asked to take care of the cooking oil problem. Cooking oil is still a problem because the price is still high and the stock is scarce in the market.

"Suddenly the President (Jokowi) ordered me to take care of cooking oil. So since three days ago, I started dealing with the scarcity of cooking oil," said Luhut when opening the virtual GAMKI 60th Anniversary Peak Celebration, which was broadcast via YouTube. Gamki Balikpapan, Saturday, May 21.

Luhut also hopes that the cooking oil problem will be resolved soon. "We hope that it won't be too long before we finish it," he said.