Secretary-general of home affairs ministry resigns

JAKARTA (JP): The secretary-general of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Feisal Tamin, tendered his resignation on Monday, intending to concentrate on chairing the Indonesian Civil Servants Corps (Korpri).

The resignation, which took place within in 15 minutes at the ministry's office on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta, was attended by Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid and other high-ranking officials at the ministry.

"I decided to hand over my duties to the minister, who asked me to concentrate on my job at Korpri," said Feisal, who proposed to resign from his post two weeks earlier.

He said the minister had ordered him to turn Korpri into a neutral, self-reliant and professional organization.

"Civil servants should no longer think about politics," he quoted Syarwan as saying.

However, Feisal refused to comment on whether his resignation was a result of coercion by certain parties.

Asked about the reasons for Feisal's resignation, Syarwan said: "Korpri needs special attention as the number of its members reaches millions of people."

The resignation was also needed to help facilitate the promotion process in the ministry, he said.

Feisal came under the spotlight early this year when he staunchly defended the civil servants' neutrality in politics.

During the New Order government, Korpri was affiliated to ruling party Golkar, which registered landslide victory in all the six general elections.

"He fought for the civil servants' neutrality at the House of Representatives (DPR), while at the same time he pledged to set up a Korpri Party. However, is he really honestly fighting for civil servants' neutrality?," the ministry's spokesperson, Herman Ibrahim, quoted Syarwan as saying.

Soon after the resignation ceremony, Syarwan installed several new officials, including four deputy governors of Bali, West Java, West Kalimantan, Jakarta and a ministerial expert staffer.

At the ceremony, Syarwan reminded the newly installed officials that all organizations had their own rules, which members had to abide by.

"Everyone should know his own duties well and should not take over his counterparts' duties," he said.

If this rule is violated, he added, it could lead to a conflict of interests. (01)