Nadiem Makarim Says Subordinates He Selected Were Approved by Jokowi

Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Mendikbudristek) Nadiem Makarim revealed that Indonesia’s seventh President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had approved the subordinates he selected while leading the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. This was stated when the Public Prosecutor (JPU) highlighted the existence of a group referred to as a “shadow organization” or shadow organisation in the ministry. “You also brought in outsiders; there’s a term for it—what is it? Shadow. What shadow? I don’t know, anyway, it’s called shadow. What shadow organisation,” the prosecutor said at the trial for the alleged corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday (11/5/2026). The prosecutor even alluded to one of Nadiem’s former special staff, Jurist Tan, who was known internally in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology as Nadiem’s right-hand man. “I’ll tell you. Jurist Tan is known as ‘The Real Minister’. There was even a fear in the ministry that it was unusual during your tenure as minister,” the prosecutor stated. Nadiem responded to the prosecutor’s spotlight and explained that the ministerial special staff (SKM) he brought in had competencies in their respective fields. “As a minister, I entered with several special staff who were specific in their respective fields because of their competencies, because of their integrity. These people, like Mas Nino, Pak Iwan, Jurist Tan, Dey, and also Fiona, and others, are SKM,” Nadiem replied. Nadiem further explained that Jokowi, as President at the time, had also approved the appointment of those names. “So they were chosen by me and approved by Mr President based on their track records in the ministry,” Nadiem said. Meanwhile, the technology team that helped with the education digitalisation programme was not part of the ministry’s structure but was under a subsidiary of PT Telkom. At the end of his explanation, Nadiem emphasised that the use of this technological expertise was part of the education digitalisation mandate given to him by the government. “Why were people with technological knowledge used to assist in the ministry in the digitalisation programme? Because this is the mandate I received from Mr President,” Nadiem concluded.