Ministry of Defense in big reshuffle

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)