Megawati prioritizes political stability, govt efficiency

Megawati prioritizes political stability, govt efficiency

Bambang Kesowo, the former deputy Cabinet secretary under
second president Soeharto, served as the secretary to vice
president Megawati Soekarnoputri, and, as of Wednesday, is the
temporary official spokesman for the President. He shared with
The Jakarta Post the priorities of the new government.

Question: You might be the most powerful bureaucrat on
President Megawati Soekarnoputri's team. How would you describe
your position?

Answer: Well, I'm sorry to say that we have to start
everything almost from the very beginning. But if Ibu asks me to
assist her in whatever capacity is needed, I'll do my best to
help her.

What will be the President's priority?

Everybody knows that (the presidency) will be very hard.
Expectations are running high and problems must be resolved in a
very short time, in two and a half years.

What will be her top agenda in politics?

Anybody who has to carry out the obligations (as the current
president of Indonesia) would first do something like stabilize
the political situation, and seek ways of stabilizing relations
between the executive and legislative branches. Secondly, they
would look at how to improve efficiency within the government
organization.

Only if these two prerequisites can be filled despite the very
short time (available), will the government be more prepared when
confronted with the threat of disintegration.

It is okay for people to express their aspirations, but
without repeatedly calling for independence. It is urgent to
tackle (the disintegration threat). Then the issue is how to
provide a better foundation and better direction about what kind
of reforms we want to address.

Up to now, nobody here has been against reforms. But the scope
of reforms must be very clear, such as how we should schedule the
demands. There has been an assumption that everybody is free to
do whatever he or she wants. That's not good for our development
of democracy (and) human rights, we need to make our rules very
clear.

How about Megawati's priority in the economy?

We're thinking about how to stabilize the rupiah's exchange
rate. It is not good to have a wildly fluctuating rupiah. Then we
need to seriously face our banking sector, otherwise the real
sector will not be able to resume normalcy. In addition to the
interest rate and lending rate, it is very important to talk to
the central bank on how to manage the rate, simply to give
activities a chance to operate economically.

Regarding development, we will start questioning even
ourselves on whether we are on the right track, and learn from
what has happened in the past about our weakness in the economic
foundation, and so on. The development strategy has continued for
some 30 years, but because of the crisis, everything is now
breaking down. And since we want to start again we must learn why
our situation is like what it is now. What are our real problems,
what is wrong with our strategy?

In law enforcement, we remain committed to continuing tackling
corruption. Certainly we will structure things.

On foreign affairs?

In the short term, we want to regain the trust of the
international community, the integrity of the country and the
government.

How about security, is it the most urgent issue for the
people?

To my understanding, a very serious concern of the President's
is how to improve the performance of law enforcers; how to bring
about peace and security. The President has summoned National
Police chief Gen. Soerojo Bimantoro and Jakarta Police chief
Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacoeb to instruct them to take all necessary
actions to stop this "bombing terrorism".

She has also ordered serious steps in the hunt for
(businessman and Soeharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra) Tommy,
simply because his case has been decided by the court, and (the
verdict) needs to be upheld.

Your return to the center of power is regarded as the symbol
of the revival of the bureaucracy, which was sidelined under the
previous administration.

This feeling among the public might be right. But I believe
that there is not one single state or government which can
survive without two important sources of support: first, from law
enforcers and second from the bureaucracy. Any ideas to make the
government more effective, regardless of whether they are liked
or disliked, must involve the bureaucracy. How to get the
administration running is the only concern of the bureaucrats.

What will be the President's target in her first 100 days?

It is not our custom to have such a target, that's a
convention of other countries. But what is certain is how to
realize the above prerequisites to stabilize relations between
the executive and legislative branches. Criticism is okay, but
the issue is how can we create a situation where the spirit of
killing each other is no longer present.

Then in the very short run, and this is my personal opinion,
(the target would be) how to make the working mechanism within
the government effective, while it remains in order and is
transparent.

Many complain about the President's tendency to be quiet and
her avoidance of public statements.

Well, that is Ibu's character. Is there a requirement that a
president should be outspoken, and that every two hours she or he
has to speak up? (What's important is that) the flow of
information, the decision-making and the flow of decisions taken
by the President can be channeled properly and quickly to
implementing agencies, to ministers or government bodies. It's
not necessary that every time the President makes a decision she
must come and speak directly to the media. (Kornelius Purba).