TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The selection of two strategic echelon I officials at the Finance Ministry draws controversy. The process lacked transparency and reeked of favoritism.
THE appointment of Lt. Gen. Djaka Budhi as Director-General of Customs and Bimo Wijayanto as Director-General of Taxes shows President Prabowo Subianto’s understanding of the concept of meritocracy has been confused with favoritism. Instead of appointing people with expertise and experience to manage state revenues, Prabowo chose people in line with his personal preferences.
Djaka and Bimo were chosen without going through a transparent process. Their names suddenly appeared, and then they were appointed to these strategic positions in the Finance Ministry, which had always been occupied by career officials. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati seemed unable to resist parachuting candidates.
Djaka, former Inspector-General at the Defense Ministry and Chief Secretary of the State Intelligence Agency, has long been close to Prabowo. During the New Order era, Djoko was his subordinate in Army Special Forces Command and joined the Rose Team.
There was a strong nuance of favoritism in choosing Bimo. It is true that the former Assistant Deputy for Strategic Investment at the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Investment had worked as a staffer at the Directorate-General of Taxes for seven years, from 2003 to 2010. However, reportedly he was chosen because he is an alumnus of the Taruna Nusantara Senior High School class of 1995. In the Red-and-White Cabinet, there are at least five alumni from this school established by the Defense Ministry in Magelang, Central Java.
The Finance Ministry is no battlefield. The Director-General of Customs and the Director-General of Taxes are important technical positions that do not need expertise in military strategy, but that require specific skills in fiscal management and an understanding of the laws concerning taxation and international trade, as well as extensive experience in managing the complex system of state revenues.
What Prabowo has done is not in line with procedures for appointing state officials. In the era of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono—who also had a military background—appointments of echelon I officials were carried out by strictly applying the final assessment team mechanism. The existence of this team showed that the government was implementing the mechanism of checks and balances to ensure that strategic positions were filled by the right people. The final assessment team was a bastion to stop the bureaucracy becoming a field for political patronage, but it collapsed in the era of President Joko Widodo.
The appointments of Djaka and Bimo were also not in line with Law No. 5/2014 on the State Civil Apparatus, which states that senior leadership positions must be filled by people who are competent and professional through a strict selection mechanism. This should be through the establishment of a selection committee, transparent announcements, selection, and determination by the final assessment team.
Of course, a president has a prerogative right. But this right does not give him or her carte blanche to build a dynasty or restore a militaristic style of government. Decisions like this not only damage the principle of meritocracy in the government, but also convey the wrong message: loyalty is more important than capability, and where somebody comes from is more of a deciding factor than past achievements.
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