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.