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).