Bambang Kesowo's return revives past fear

Bambang Kesowo's return revives past fear

By Kornelius Purba

JAKARTA (JP): Many fear that the promotion of Bambang Kesowo
as State Secretary/Cabinet Secretary by President Megawati
Soekarnoputri will also mean the revival of the office, described
in the past as the feared "super ministry". It was even branded
"a state within a state" by Megawati's predecessor Abdurrahman
Wahid.

Megawati's quiet character, her reluctance to talk to the
media and her preference for rigid protocol and tight security,
has also fueled public suspicion that the State Secretariat
(Setneg) and presidential office will repeat past practices.

The State Secretariat under then president Soeharto mirrored
the office of the iron-fisted man where practically no one,
including the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Supreme
Audit Agency (BPK), had the guts to probe the office.

Third president Abdurrahman tried to clean up the secretariat
by placing inexperienced friends in strategic positions and
increasing the number of his secretaries, but many alleged the
corruption that followed was not very different from the previous
era.

Among Abdurrahman's first decisions as president was trimming
the secretariat. Initially he wanted to reduce the number of
employees from 3,000 to only 800.

Abdurrahman reportedly harbored a grudge against the office
because he had often suffered from its corruption; presidential
funds for the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) organization, which he
chaired, were often cut by the officials.

Megawati's strong confidence in Bambang after his disgraceful
fall from the once powerful State Secretariat under former
president B.J. Habibie three years ago does not only mean a
personal "revival". It could also mean the return of the State
Secretariat to its original power.

Born on March 27, 1945, Bambang obtained his master's degree
from Harvard Law School in 1983. He was continuing his studies at
the same university when Megawati asked him to become her aide
two months after her election as vice president in October 1999.

Bambang has openly pledged to return the office's power. "A
strong but transparent and efficient State Secretariat is needed
to back up the President," Bambang hinted.

Habibie sacked Bambang as Cabinet vice secretary only four
months after replacing Soeharto in May 1998, amid allegations
that Bambang had received US$2 million in bribes to speed up the
bankruptcy law and his blunder in the drafting of the widely
opposed government regulation on freedom of expression.

Bambang complained at that time that he was only made a
scapegoat by Habibie after the regulation received strong
opposition from students and anti-government groups. After losing
his position he then had to use a very small office just a few
meters from his previous room without many of the office
facilities he was used to.

Ironically, former state secretary Akbar Tandjung who had
privately informed Bambang about Habibie's decision to sack him
reportedly rang him up upon his recent appointment and asked him
to reorganize the office and return it to its former stature.

Bambang, who had worked in the position of Cabinet vice
secretary for five years under Soeharto, was in charge of
drafting bills, government regulations and presidential decrees
under Soeharto's rule.

Many of the presidential decisions or government regulations
were merely meant to justify the business activities, corruption,
collusion and nepotism (KKN) of Soeharto's children and cronies.
State Secretary officials often collaborated with them in
enriching themselves.

At that time the office also supervised state ministries,
lucrative state-owned companies like oil and gas firm Pertamina.
Government officials like governors and even ministers could not
do much to resist pressures from the presidential office.

But now the situation has totally changed compared to under
Soeharto's era. The center of power is no longer dominated by the
President, the distribution of power has spread to the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR), the House, political parties, the
media, nongovernmental organizations and students.

Megawati needs a strong bureaucracy. The replacement of
current civil servants with fresh people at the presidential
office will not guarantee improvement, as Abdurrahman found out
to his cost.

The House and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights have
replaced Bambang's office in drafting bills. The presidential
office is no longer a "sacred" place where outsiders are not
welcome. Soeharto possessed huge sums of money to finance his
presidency, including secret funds and presidential aid funds
(Banpres). Some of the funds reportedly still exist.

When she was still vice president Megawati realized her lack
of experience in bureaucracy. She did not change the bureaucratic
structure at Merdeka Selatan Palace. She recruited Bambang
although she had not known him before. Former state secretary
Moerdiono reportedly recommended Bambang's name to Megawati.

Megawati learned from Abdurrahman's bitter experience after
selecting journalist Ratih Hardjono as presidential secretary.
Ratih did not only fail to weaken the office but even fell victim
to her measures. These measures included replacing a number of
staff at the State Secretariat and trying to reduce the
traditional involvement of the office's bureaus in the issuance
of presidential decrees, only to find that it was all quite a
handful.

In a recent conversation with Bambang, he vowed to help
Megawati in leading the country. He said, as a civil servant, he
had reached the highest level and as an experienced legal expert
he could easily open a law firm once he was no longer in the
government.

A strong State Secretariat is needed to back up Megawati in
her duties during these difficult times. She fully realizes the
past practices of the office and as the daughter of former
president Sukarno she learned how her father handled a strong
office.

Bambang has the chance now to prove whether public perception
of him has been misleading and whether he really is a valuable
asset to President Megawati.

The writer is a staff writer of The Jakarta Post.