Ex-miner Rozik digs into his new job

Ex-miner Rozik digs into his new job

JAKARTA (JP): Mining and public works are two such very
different professions that it is difficult to think any person
with an established career in any one of them would want to
switch fields, especially if he is already in his fifties.

Rozik Boedioro Soetjipto made that switch, not by choice, but
rather on the orders of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

This week, after more than two months of near invisibility,
the new state minister of public works faced his first crisis,
forcing him to make a public appearance.

Massive floods have made the crucial toll road linking Jakarta
with the Soekarno-Hatta airport impassable to cars, disrupting
flights with many passengers and airline crew unable to get to
the airport on time.

With the help of aides, Rozik quickly came up with a long-term
solution, after identifying that floods in the area would recur
depending on the amount of rainfall and the tidal patterns of
nearby coast.

Yet, little in his long public career and educational
background suggests that he was destined to serve as state
minister for public works.

"I don't know how I got the job," a frank but timid Rozik said
in an interview. "And I'd rather not talk about it."

His staff joked that the only connection between his current
job and his previous post as director general for general mining
at the Ministry of Mines and Energy was that both had the same
Indonesian acronyms "PU": Pekerjaan Umum (public works) and
Pertambangan Umum (general mining). "Someone in the President's
office got the acronyms mixed up," one of them commented.

Rozik's appointment was one of many mysteries surrounding
President Abdurrahman's decisions when forming his Cabinet in
October. He is one of the few bureaucrats to have been recruited
into the Cabinet, which is filled mostly by figures from the
country's main political parties.

There was even a mystery when the Cabinet lineup was announced
in October, when the State Secretariat misspelled his first name
as Rafiq. The mistake sent newspapers on a wild goose chase to
find out about the man before they learned of the error.

Since his posting meant not only having to study an entirely
new field but also having to set up a completely new office,
Rozik quickly plunged into his new job, drawing up a vision and
mission, and putting together his team. "I've just completed my
team this week," a relieved-looking Rozik said.

The President dissolved the public works ministry, which
employed 38,000 people, and replaced it with a smaller outfit
headed by Rozik, who retains only 600 employees.

Most of the ministry's employees have been transferred to the
regional administrations, which will execute public works
projects. Some 9,000 have been recruited into the new Ministry of
Settlement and Regional Development under Erna Witoelar.

Rozik is assisted by a secretary, five expert staff and five
deputies. All are senior officials from the disbanded ministry,
who were given the choice of joining either Rozik or Erna.

A long time bureaucrat, Rozik said he is applying President
Abdurrahman's philosophy of reducing the role of the government
to the bare minimum by delegating most administrative tasks to
the regional administrations.

The role of central government is no longer in executing
policies but more in formulating policies. In the public works
sector, this approach represents a major change.

The Ministry of Public Works was involved in constructing and
maintaining the country's infrastructure, from reservoirs and
irrigation facilities to roads and toll roads. Such a portfolio
not only made it big and powerful, but also a breeding ground for
corruption, collusion and nepotism, for which it was notorious.

This is changing with a smaller office and limited tasks.

"Our job is to draw up concepts of management, for such things
as water resources, flood controls, irrigation and others," Rozik
said. His office will do just about anything -- from planning,
programming, budgeting and a host of other jobs -- apart the
execution.

This is probably where his long expertise as a bureaucrat
counts most in his new job.

Born on Aug. 20, 1943, Rozik served in the Ministry of Mines
and Energy before his Cabinet appointment, first as director
general for geology and mineral resources, and later as director
general of general mining. Previously, he was director of the
state-owned mining agency Pengusahaan Pertambangan, and a
commissioner at PT Aneka Tambang, the state-owned mining company.

A mining technology graduate from Bandung Technology
Institute, he took his masters degree in metallurgy, and his PhD
in extractive metallurgy at the Catholic University in Leuven,
Belgium.

Rozik's office remains powerful in evaluating public works
projects, and its powers include recommending the government on
setting the priority of these projects.

But since his office is not involved in executing projects, it
has no vested interest in them, and therefore will not be under
pressure to approve them the way the old ministry was.

"Essentially, we are in a position to make a much more
independent and objective evaluation," Rozik said.

The central government is nevertheless under pressure from the
regional administrations to revive many of the giant projects
that were shelved during the economic crisis in 1997 and 1998.

One project that has been taken off the drawing board is
Jakarta's mass rapid transit (MRT) system; Jakarta's governor
Sutiyoso is actively lobbying President Abdurrahman Wahid and
Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri to win their support.

Rozik said the MRT project is still at an evaluation stage and
a long way from being approved.

Sutiyoso will be in competition with other regions in pushing
his project to the top of the priority list, but just because
Jakarta is closest to the central government does not necessarily
mean that it will have its way.

The green light for these giant projects will largely be
dictated by the politics of the government, and the ability of
the regional governments to come up with their share of the money
to finance them.

In spite of its power to grant recommendations, Rozik's office
is not the one that makes the political decisions.

"Our job is to make the feasibility studies on these projects.
We will be ready with our studies," Rozik said.