Ministers Newly Inaugurated By President Jokowi Are Required To Work Faster

President Jokowi/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Senior Observer Yusuf Rendy Manilet said a number of ministers and deputy ministers who had just been appointed by President Joko Widodo should have worked faster and followed the direction of the head of state to carry out their respective mandates.

The newly elected executive government officials are Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan, Minister of Agrarian and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Hadi Tjahyanto and his deputy Raja Juli Antoni, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs John Wempi Watipo, and Deputy Minister of Manpower Afriansyah Noor .

“Some of those who were elected in the cabinet reshuffle basically have experience in the government bureaucracy. So, the transition process or carrying out a new mandate should not take a long time," said Antara, Wednesday, June 15.

Furthermore, the new ministers and deputy ministers have their own challenges to be resolved immediately.

For the Minister of Trade, the main challenge to be faced is to resolve the issue of the trade system, especially the food trade. One of the crucial issues that are still sticking out in the public eye is the price of cooking oil, even though the government has made several policy adjustments.

On the other hand, international trade also deserves the attention of the new Minister of Trade.

"Currently, the problem of the potential for a global food crisis is emerging, so the government should have taken mitigation steps at the beginning to minimize the impact that is given when a food crisis occurs in the country," he said.

For the Minister of ATR/BPN, he continued, one of the crucial issues that need to be addressed is land certification, considering that recently there have been issues of alleged mafia land certificates by persons from the relevant ministries.

This issue must be investigated further so that agrarian and spatial reform works optimally.

Regarding the challenges at the Ministry of Manpower, the most important issue is to restore domestic labor absorption, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic has transitioned to endemic.

"Looking for a sector that can absorb a large number of workers is one of the jobs of this ministry, so coordination with other strategic ministries such as the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Industry needs to be done more intensively," said Yusuf.

Finally, the Ministry of Home Affairs is deemed necessary to ensure the process of selecting regional heads and the transition process from governors whose term of office has expired to temporary Acting Officers (Plt) in a number of provinces that carry out Regional Head Elections (Pilkada), so that the two activities can run optimally.