Terawan Called As A Candidate For Spanish Ambassador, DPR Commission I Has Not Received The Letter

Terawan Agus Putranto (DOK. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Although a number of candidates for ambassador have been submitted by the government to the leadership of the DPR. However, a member of Commission I DPR from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) Fraction, Sukamta, said that the name had not yet been entered into his commission.

"(The letter, red) is not yet. We have not received the letter from the candidate for ambassador," he said when contacted by VOI, Monday, February 22.

If later the letter has been delegated from the DPR leadership to the commission, then the next stage is to hold a fit and proper test on a number of the nominated candidates.

"Furthermore, the leadership delegates to the relevant commission, in this case Commission I. Then the commission will schedule a fit and proper test for the candidates," said Sukamta.

It was discovered that on Friday, February 19, the Deputy Speaker of the DPR, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, said that the DPR RI leadership had received the name of the ambassador candidate proposed by the government. "But I don't memorize the names," he told reporters.

As previously reported, a number of names were circulating and were mentioned as candidates for the Indonesian ambassador. Among the names are former Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto. He is said to be a prospective Indonesian ambassador to Spain based in Madrid.

In addition there is also the name of a former member of the Jokowi-Ma'ruf National Campaign Team (TKN) in the 2019 Presidential Election who is also a Commissioner of PT Yodya, Zuhairi Misrawi. The list also includes the name Muhammad Prakosa as a candidate for the Indonesian ambassador in Rome, Italy.

Muhammad Prakosa is a PDI-P politician who was also Minister for Attention in the National Unity Cabinet in 1999-2000 and Minister for Forestry in the Gotong Royong Cabinet in 2001-2004.

Another name, is the Chairman of Kadin Rosan Roeslani. He is said to have been proposed as a candidate for the Indonesian ambassador to the United States in Washington DC

Regarding these names, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemenlu) stated that they could not confirm a number of these names. This is because in the process these names were not made public.

"I can't confirm it," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah when contacted by VOI, Monday, February 22.

In addition, he considered, the identities of these candidates could not be revealed to respect diplomacy with the target countries.

"In the practice of diplomacy, the names of the candidates for ambassador are not disclosed to the public and usually until the approval of the intended country for the ambassador candidates is obtained," he said.

This news has also been confirmed to Zuhairi Misrawi and Terawan. It's just that, until this news was published, both of them did not reply to messages via WhatsApp.