Cak Imin Hits About SOEs, Erick Thohir's Strong Response Is Considered Fair

The Ministry of SOEs has donated dividends to the state amounting to Rp82 trillion during the leadership of Erick Thohir. (Shutterstock / Abdurrahim Husain)

JAKARTA - Political observer from Al Azhar University Indonesia, Ujang Komarudin, considers it natural that Erick Thohir reacted as Minister of SOEs, when his work was debated by the candidate for vice president (Cawapres) number 01 Muhaimin Iskandar or Cak Imin.

"As a person who has built works in BUMN, (then Erick) gets a digital footprint of a statement in a candidate pair forum, it's natural if (Erick) reacts," said Ujang in his statement, Thursday, February 8.

According to Ujang, what Erick Thohir maintains is the result of his work while carrying out his duties as assistant to the president. Where, in his era of leadership, SOEs succeeded in donating dividends of around Rp. 82 trillion to the state.

"Almost 5 years Erick has led BUMN and it is not easy, managing mega corporations which now contribute to the country through dividends of around Rp. 82 trillion, the largest in history," he said.

Not to mention, said Ujang, Erick has also saved SOEs that are losing money from past heritage. Starting from Garuda Indonesia, Krakatau Steel, PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN), to Pupuk.

Moreover, continued Ujang, Erick also did not blame past policies when leading the completion of BUMNyang's strategic projects'strengthened' due to wrong planning and management of projects.

"Erick has never blamed past policies, but Erick prefers to take the initiative to solve and solve problems," said Ujang.

Therefore, Ujang regretted that his debate actually distanced from the most important substance, namely nourishing SOEs to be stronger. According to Ujang, what happened was that Erick used a narrative that was far from the most important substance.

"What's wrong with the timses and Gus Imin being too reactive to attack Erick? Why don't the candidate pairs focus on the content alone, namely how to make SOE profit increase 2-3 times from now on and how to make SOE contribution even stronger for the people," said Ujang.

Ujang also appreciated the birth of the Minister of SOEs Regulation Number 05 of 2022 concerning the Implementation of Risk Management by SOEs. This rule makes MSME fostered partners advance to class, to above 7 percent per year.

"Well, please AMIN, if you have a program idea, it's even better. So let's focus on smart programs and corporate strategies rather than just playing political issues and attacking each other's empty messages," said Ujang.

For your information, the debate between the Vice Presidential Candidate number 01 Muhaimin Iskadar or Cak Imin and SOE Minister Erick Thohir stems from the issue that SOEs will be used as cooperatives.

Cak Imin accused Erick of spreading hoaxes. The hoax context in question is when the pair 01 is accused of disbanding SOEs and replacing them with cooperatives.

Related to this, SOE Minister Erick Thohir said the accusation of changing the status of BUMN to a cooperative was the wrong address. The reason is, Erick admitted that he only answered reporters' questions about the idea of Timses AMIN.

According to Erick, Cak Imin should clarify and reprimand the success team for making the idea. Because, the idea has made all BUMN employees and partners restless.

"If it wasn't from the AMIN team, Pak Anies and Cak Imin shouldn't have reprimanded me, but reprimanded the spokesman for holding a press conference on this matter. The video is there," said Erick.