Guess What? Siswono Yudohusodo

Guess What? Siswono Yudohusodo

If one day you are appointed transmigration minister, get
ready to peek into the needs of every household in far-flung
areas of the archipelago. Siswono Yudohusodo had his share of
headaches when he held the job in a previous cabinet. "The span
of control is so immense," he said at a discussion Wednesday at
The Jakarta Post.

"You have to check whether that Rp 15,000 (now US$1.30)
allotted for salted fish for each household reaches that family,
or whether they only get Rp 7,500."

When the minister was assured that households in a given area
were not deprived of their annual ration of salted fish, rice,
toiletries and other needs, there was another problem: whether
all families got what they needed.

Under a centralized government, the bushy-browed businessman
said, "the span is so wide that ... things are uniform. Even a
fisherman's family gets salted fish while actually they make it!"

His 10 year-experience as minister -- he was first state
minister of public housing -- resulted in the valuable lesson
that it is not easy to judge people as either corrupt or clean.

"I put a 'clean' person in a lucrative job, and he turned out
just the same," said Siswono, a founder of the new Movement for
Indonesian Justice and Unity (GKPB). (anr)