Minister or Ministry?

Minister or Ministry?

The new government recently decided that two ministries, the
Ministry of Information and Ministry of Social Affairs, were to
be closed down, reportedly leaving about 78,000 employees in
confusion of what life is going to be like in the days to come.
Regardless of the pros and cons and aired reasons pertaining to
the function and performance of the said ministries in the past
decades, the 1945 Constitution does make this possible to happen
as it is mentioned in the Articles of Chapter 17 that the
President has the right to appoint and terminate ministers.

The only question left is for which historical context the
founding fathers of this country actually referred to when they
ratified this Chapter 17? Did they mean ministries are somehow
established first and this chapter is only to facilitate the
President to pick or kick out associated ministers as
individuals? Or did they mean that with this Chapter the
President could at any time establish or abolish any ministries
as manned institutions?

As an opinion, and at the same time, as a proposal to Amien
Rais, now is the right time for the committee of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) in charge of the 1945 Constitution
amendment to conduct a thorough review on this particular Chapter
17, especially in consideration of human rights. Without a
related amendment, strict implementation of the presently valid
Chapter 17 may lead to a similar situation in the future where
employees of certain government institutions can suddenly lose
their status overnight, most likely during the establishment of a
new Cabinet. And although it sounds practically impossible, I
could not imagine if someday, due to one reason or another, the
Ministry of Defense is abolished. On the contrary, even in
private businesses, a liquidation of a company is normally not
made in such an abrupt manner.

ATTILA RAHAYOE

Bekasi, West Java