Megawati Inaugurated As Chair Of The BRIN Steering Committee, PKS: The Government Opens Opportunities For Politicizing Research

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JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo inaugurated the board of directors of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). One of those who were inaugurated was PDIP General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri as Chair of the BRIN Steering Committee.

Megawati's inauguration was criticized by members of Commission VII DPR from the PKS faction, Mulyanto. According to him, the government has opened up opportunities for politicization in the world of national research.

According to him, throughout the history of research development in Indonesia, now is a crucial point in relation to ideological-political intervention in the world of research and innovation.

This is reflected in the ex-officio appointment of Megawati, who is also Chair of the Steering Committee of the Pancasila Ideology Development Board (BPIP).

"With this condition, in my opinion, there is a wide opportunity for politicization of research. Moreover, the Chairman of the BRIN Steering Committee has considerable authority, including forming a special task force," Mulyanto told reporters, Wednesday, October 13.

The deputy chairman of the PKS faction said that previously experts had asked President Jokowi to review the policy of making ex-officio members of the BPIP Steering Committee as Chairman of the BRIN Steering Committee as an effort to prevent politicization of research within the National Research Institute.

"It turns out that President Joko Widodo did not pay attention to the input of these experts and continued to inaugurate the Chairman of the BRIN Steering Committee from the BPIP Steering Committee," he said.

Mulyanto assessed that the government was pushing itself too hard because the development of research and innovation was far away from BPIP.

The Sesmenristek of President SBY's era, explained in an editorial in the well-known science journal Nature, September 8, 2021 edition, concerns about political intervention in BRIN as a new centralized agency (super agency) with an ambitious reorganization but no clear plan for its performance.

Indonesia's innovation ranking in the 2021 Global Innovation Index (GII) report is declining. Indonesia's position is ranked 87th out of 132 countries.

"In terms of scores, it continues to decline. The weakest factor is the 'institutional' aspect, which is ranked 107th, ed. Even below Vietnam and Brunei, Indonesia is only above Laos and Cambodia in the Asean region," said Mulyanto.

In addition, he added, BRIN's mixed functions as implementers as well as policy makers for research and innovation, also carry out the functions of organizing nuclear (ex BATAN) and aerospace (ex LAPAN).

"With this big and basic problem, I am pessimistic that this institutional consolidation will go well," said Mulyanto.