Ministry of Defense in big reshuffle

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Defense will undergo a major reshuffle of its top echelons this month, replacing all current military officials with new appointees, including three civilians.

Minister of Defense Mahfud MD said on Monday that the changes would be made in order to fulfill organizational needs. A presidential decree confirming the appointments will be issued this month.

"All top echelons will be replaced as we are going to have new directorate generals within the ministry's structure. One of the director generals and two of the expert staff will be civilians," Mahfud told The Jakarta Post.

The minister said that the new decree will appoint 11 people to the ministry's top echelons, including five director generals, five expert staff, and the ministry's secretary-general.

Currently, the ministry only has three directorate generals, a secretary general and five expert staff.

Despite announcing the planned restructure, Mahfud refused to identify the new appointees.

He claimed that there was no negative reaction from the current top military personnel when he announced the plan earlier last month, and underlined that the restructuring is needed to improve the ministry's performance.

Reliable sources told the Post that Lt. Gen. Soeharto, who is currently the ministry's inspectorate general, current National Resilience Institute Governor Lt. Gen. Johny Lumintang, and current expert staff member of the ministry Maj. Gen. Aklani Masa would be appointed to key positions.

Civilians likely to be recruited to the ministry include noted female activist Chusnul Mariyah, senior researcher of the National Institute of Science Sofian Tsauri and Director of Treasury at the Finance Ministry Mas Wijaya. (dja)