Sick Cabinet, corruption hinder Mega's performance
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The prolonged friction among the economic ministers and the corrupt bureaucracy constitute two main factors contributing to the bad performance of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government, according to the research and development center of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).
Sukowaluyo, chief of the research and development center, the weak coordination among the president's economic team has created sectoral egoism and even, increased friction among the ministers that are connected to fiscal matters.
"The sectoral egoism has emerged over the several past months and it is a result of a lack of coordination among the ministers that deal with economic issues. And this has affected the performance of the administration.
"The economic ministers appointed the president were termed, 'the dream team' but they have become the dreaming team. We are witnessing real friction between State Minister for National Planning and Development Kwik Kian Gie and Coordinating Minister for Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti over the IMF recovery program and also between Kwik and State Minister of State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi," he said here on Saturday.
Sukowaluyo who was accompanied by the center's secretary Subagyo Anam and deputy secretary Didi Supriyanto, made the statement in a press conference to expose the party's evaluation of the government's performance.
He said the party had given two alternatives for the president to cope with the Cabinet problems. "If the president wants to improve her Cabinet, she must change some people, on the other hand, if she takes the short time of one year and half ahead into consideration, ibu shouldn't do it."
Subagyo Anam said that the government's bad performance also had a lot to do with the prevalent corruption in the executive and legislative bodies, as well as the judiciary.
"We have recommended that the president reform the bureaucracy and leave high echelon positions in the bureaucracy to professionals.
"Speaking frankly, almost all state officials and public servants are corrupt, but Attorney General M.A. Rachman has an even worse situation because his (corruption) case has been exposed to the public," he said, adding that the corruption had also infected the House of Representatives and the judiciary system.
Central Bank Governor Sjachril had his corruption conviction overturned on appeal, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung was convicted for corruption, but was not ordered to go to jail as he filed for an appeal immediately.
Meanwhile, Kwik Kian Gie hailed the democratic atmosphere in the Cabinet, saying he would continue his opposition to the government's unpopular policy, including the IMF's financial scheme and the presidential instruction to effectively exonerate large debtors who have not paid back trillions of bank bailout funds, locally called R&D.
"I will continue to fight against the IMF program until it is halted and oppose the government's policy to free troubled debtors from crimes," he said.
Kwik said the IMF scheme must be halted because it was not helping the economy recover. "So far, we have used US$12 billion from IMF just to keep out currency relatively stable and we could have a total of between $10,000 trillion and $15,000 trillion more in debt to the IMF unless the aid scheme is halted.
"I want it to be cut now, but others in my party want to cease all extensions as of Nov. 2003," he said.
Kwik also expressed his disappointment about the government's controversial presidential instruction on R&D, and that exonerating debtors was an injustice and a strong indication of the absence of legal certainty.
"The troubled debtors should be brought to court should they fail to pay their huge debt," he said.