Hello guys!
This morning I was watching a morning talk in TV One (@tvOneNews)
about 100th day of Jokowi’s Administration, and I couldn’t help to notice Mr Fahri
Hamzah (@Fahrihamzah), the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Last Wednesday, Mr Hamzah, along with the delegates from the
House were having a media visit to the office I am currently doing internship
at, the Rakyat Merdeka editorial office. Besides him, the complete list of
delegates included Mr Setya Novanto and Mr Fadli Zon (@fadlizon).
FYI, Mr Novanto is the Speaker of the House, Mr Hamzah is the
Deputy Speaker for People’s Welfare, and Mr Zon is the Deputy Speaker for
Politics and Security. Together they make up the Chairs of the House.
It is within everyone’s understanding
that Mr Widodo and all the three gentlemen are in different political
coalition, with the former belongs to The Great Indonesia coalition (Koalisi
Indonesia Hebat/KIH), while the latter is part of The Red-White Coalition
(Koalisi Merah Putih/KMP).
Here in my blog, I would like to report about the meeting between the Chairs of the House of Representatives and Rakyat Merdeka's Board of Editors.
My aim is to share my version of Indonesia’s current political turmoil. As we
all know, the mass media have been exposing us to the issue of 100th day of
Jokowi’s administration over and over again. I hope this post can give you some
little details you may not find in mass media and help you identify what
actually happens.
Mr Novanto opened the meeting by
stating that there are three agenda he would like to highlight. First, the
visit was an effort from the House to establish a communication with the media.
“In order for the House to get closer with the people, there should be access
and openness between the House and the mass media,” he said. He also added that
this access and openness he hoped to achieve is part of the effort to gain
mutual understanding, so media can be more critical in ‘questioning,’ instead
of ‘judging,’ the House.
Second, the 100th day of
Jokowi’s Administration. In general, he felt pretty positive towards Mr President
Joko Widodo. He mentioned several achievements Mr Widodo made, including the public
work and agricultural reform, prioritization of infrastructure by several
ministries (including infrastructure of embassies overseas), and the raising
gas price that brings betterment to State’s Revenue and Expenditure Budget
(Anggaran Pemasukan dan Belanja Negara/APBN).
However, he stated, “to judge the whole
administration in just 100 days is premature, to say the least.” Accordingly, there
are still problems with the absorption of APBN, and more crucially, with the law
issues, including 3% allocation from APBN for laws and the law enforcer
institutions scandal.
This was where things heated
up. The scandal between two law enforcer institutions, the Corruption
Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi/KPK) and Indonesia’s
National Police (Polisi Republik Indonesia/POLRI), as the third agenda
highlighted is nothing new to the ears of many. For this, Mr Novanto clearly stated that he supported whatever Mr
President’s choice. He believed that things would work out under the corridor of
the law, but he hoped that government, “could remain solid
and commanding.”
He also mentioned that Indonesia
needs to wait until February 4 to find out what’s Mr President’s next move. Feb 4
happens to be the 20th day after the official letter stating Mr Budi Gunawan
candidacy for chief police is filed by Mr President for approval by the House. As obliged by the Constitution, the president should have appointed the chief police by then.
The second Speaker to speak was Mr
Zon. Asked about his impression towards Mr Widodo’s 100th day administration,
he said, “it has been politically entertaining.”
He said that though not stated in any law papers, the 100th day of a
newly established presidency is a measurement for the whole period roadmap. “Seeing through the 100th
day, the task ahead is far heavier. Mr Widodo himself had more than 100
promises in many state’s aspects during his campaign, for instance,
establishment of fifty thousand Public Health Centers (Pusat Kesehatan Masyarakat/Puskesmas).
He places his accountability at stake, here,” stated Mr Zon. Technical issues,
like changing in institutional nomenclatures, was also one of the things mentioned.
Mr Zon had a firmer attitude than
Mr Novanto in expressing his concern towards Mr Widodo. If Mr Novanto uttered his
critiques eloquently, Mr Zon was more of a straightforward type. He suggested
that for the campaign’s promises to be realized, Mr Widodo needs to establish a dream
team. “The right man on the right place, crème de la crème, or else, anyone
inside his administration will look like someone who’s still learning, and
hence, not able to lead.” I am sure he was referring to Mr Widodo’s wingmen in
several ministries. He also mentioned about economy in the grassroot level that’s
getting difficult. “Government has successfully added misery to the lives of our
people,” said Mr Zon. [This statement was posted in the paper’s online version,
RMOL.co (@rmolco). Click here! to see the news.]
Like the previous speaker, Mr Zon mentioned several achievements within the last 100 days of Mr Widodo’s
administration. They were execution of the death-sentenced criminals and good
effort in protecting national interest by promoting sovereignty of the sea.
Asked about the current political
turmoil, Mr Zon implied that there are many potentials of flaws in the
president’s 100-day administration. For instance, the formation of the
Presidential Advisory Board (Dewan Pertimbangan Presiden/Wantimpres) was seen
as political effort to ‘share the cake.’ It is seen as so since the president also formed another group called Team 9 (Tim 9) who is suspected to have same function as the board.
The last Speaker
was Mr Hamzah. He was the most straightforward of all three. He uttered, “the
president’s reputation is totally ruined.”
Started off by saying that there
were ‘pumping of expectation’ towards Mr Widodo during the presidential election
campaign, Mr Hamzah said that the president has failed to meet the public expectation.
This ‘pumping’ has come to the point that public believed by the tagline ‘Jokowi
is us (Jokowi adalah kita),’ but now, the social media are grown full of negative terminologies addressed to the president.
Regarding the appointment of
public officials, which includes the position of chief police, Mr Hamzah stated
that the House has been fully supporting Mr Widodo’s decision. However, this favor would
not be enough if “Mr President does not help himself.” Mr Hamzah added, “President needs to have a
legitimate, proven process in electing his officials, instead of short-term
opinions.”
“The presidential institution is
currently being torpedoed by other institutions,” argued Mr Hamzah. He kept
mentioning about how president has the ultimate sole power in presidentialism.
President’s position as the highest public official, the chief commander of the
military, and the head of state means that there is almost nothing a president
could not do. However, this power was not reflected given the current political
situation.
Mr Hamzah also addressed his
critique towards Mr Widodo by mentioning that, “it is true that in democratic
system we hold, there are many sources of power. But still, president holds the
highest position in our government. He needs to be fully alerted of this fact.”
However, Mr Hamzah was not totally
skeptical towards Mr Widodo. Agreeing with his two colleagues, Mr Hamzah said
that he appreciated each achievements done by Mr Widodo’s administration in the
past 100 days. “However, we need to be critical that the positive side would
likely be covered by the continous negative news,” he said.
Asked about the issue of KPK VS
Polri, Mr Hamzah responded that it was “a procedural issue which involved many
aspects and options, including ethics and laws.” In my opinion, we all
know that though ethics and laws are made to facilitate each other, most of the
times they contradict each other.
Mr Hamzah further argued, “there
are many options available for the House to take measure and use their
parliamentary rights towards the president, in case there is no action taken
later when Feb 4 comes.” The options, as explained by Mr Hamzah,
are the right of the commission’s member (hak anggota komisi), the interpellation
right (hak interpelasi), or the right of inquiry (hak angket). “What steps the House take, it is all according to Mr President.”
That being told, I have reached
the end of my report. As my initial aim in writing the report, I hope you can discover new
information, whether explicitly or implicitly, that you may not find in mass
media.
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| Delegates from the House is welcomed by the Board of Editors |
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| A scene from the meeting |
Within the closure of my post, I
would like to report one interesting question asked by one of the editors which
responded rather similarly interesting by the gentlemen.
The question was, “why did the
House approved the candidacy of Mr Budi Gunawan for the chief police position despite the
information that he was already suspected by KPK? We cannot help but wonder
that there may be a political agenda behind such move.” As you might be well
aware of, the day Mr Gunawan was named as suspect in the morning was the same
day the House approved him in the afternoon.
The answers were quite varied
between the three gentlemen. They were, “we were just helping the president,” “we
were just sticking to the official paper we received in the desk, lex scripta.
At the time, Mr Gunawan’s suspect status was yet to be reported to us,” and “what
if we reverse the logic, if this candidate is problematic, why did the
president propose his name at the very first beginning?”
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| Photo session after the meeting |
So, what do you think?
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