State Palace Hopes Public Works Minister Improves Communication Style

The State Palace has expressed hope that Minister of Public Works Dody Hanggodo will improve his communication style. Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi made the statement in response to issues surrounding Dody’s communication approach, which has drawn public attention.

“If there is a minister whose way of conveying something to the public is deemed inappropriate, that becomes a note for us to communicate later, and we hope it will be improved,” Pras said at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday (21/7).

Pras conveyed that President Prabowo himself consistently provides evaluations to all ministries and ministers within his ranks. He said this is done to continually improve the government’s performance on a daily basis.

“We conduct evaluations in the sense of coordinating with each other, in the sense of providing input to one another. Because there are several things that depend on the context. Evaluation from a performance perspective has its own method of how we then evaluate,” he stated.

Recently, Dody became the focus of netizens following issues regarding an alleged familial relationship with PT Pembangunan Perumahan (PT PP) Tbk Commissioner Aisyah Zakiyyah, and the circulation of an official travel administration letter to the United States that listed his family members.

The Ministry of Public Works previously denied any use of the state budget to finance the travel of Dody’s family and emphasised that the circulated document was merely an administrative requirement for visa processing. A few days later, Dody cancelled the working visit.

Dody himself has responded to the matter. He admitted he had no issue with the criticism and considered public input as material for self-improvement.

“No problem. Criticism is good. Criticism is good, it makes me able to improve myself further in the future. No, there is no problem,” Dody said at the Presidential Palace Complex in Central Jakarta on Monday (20/7).