Minister Of SOEs And Menpora Intend To Become PSSI Leaders, Is It OK?

Menpora Zainudin Amali (left) took a photo with SOE Minister Erick Thohir (right). (Photo: Instagram/@erickthohir)

JAKARTA - The PSSI Election Committee has announced the prospective executive committee candidates. Interestingly, there are two names of ministers included in it.

SOE Minister Erick Thohir is known to run as a candidate for PSSI general chairman. Meanwhile, the Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora) Zainudin Amali chose to become a candidate for deputy chairman of PSSI.

Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Pratikno admitted that he would review the applicable rules regarding whether or not the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises or the Minister of Youth and Sports needed to resign from his position after officially registering as a candidate for PSSI management.

"I don't know that, we haven't. We'll see the rules later," said Pratikno, as reported by Antara, Monday, January 16.

If you look at the applicable regulations, Law Number 3 of 2005 concerning the National Sports System (SKN) does not include a ban on the trapping of positions for the general chairman of a sports federation.

The prohibition only applies to the chairman of the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) and its derivative organizations.

Moreover, a number of ministers of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet are currently known to hold concurrent positions as chairman of the national sports federation.

For example, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan who is the General Chair of the Indonesian Athletics Association (PB PASI).

Then there is the Minister of Public Works and Public Housing, Basuki Hadimuljono, who holds the position of General Chairperson of the All-Indonesian Gateball Association (PB Pergatsi).

On a separate occasion, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung believes Erick Thohir has asked the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo (Jokowi) for permission before establishing himself forward in the nomination of the PSSI Genera Chairman.

"Mr. Erick has stepped forward, he must have asked the President for permission, it is impossible for Mr. Erick to run without the President's permission. Yes (President) allows Mr. Erick Thohir to run as a candidate, it is clear," said Pramono.

On the other hand, the question of whether or not Erick should resign from the position of Minister of SOEs because the nomination of the PSSI Genera Chairman is accompanied by a cabinet reshuffle signal or a reshuffle that has continued to blow in recent weeks.

The Minister of State Secretary denied when asked about rumors that President Jokowi would announce a reshuffle of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet on February 1, saying "There is no reshuffle story. There is no story whatsoever."

Pratikno even mentioned that on the occasion of the first Plenary Cabinet Session in 2023 which was held on Monday, the President actually conveyed a number of good performance evaluations from the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet throughout 2022.

"The performance is good, the 2022 evaluation is also very good, there is a lot that the President has said. There are so many positive achievements at very difficult times," said Pratikno.