IO – President Joko Widodo’s threat to disband some of the State’s institutions, agencies, and commissions during the restricted meeting with his ministers on 18 June was not a bluff. Early this week, the President reiterated his intention to reduce the number of organs.
“I will be disbanding 18 organs soon. The trimmer our organizations are, the more budgets will be available. If possible, we can return these budgets and functions to ministers and ministries, to directorate generals and directorates, to directors. Therefore, these agencies or commissions will no longer be functional. Why bother to continue using them then?” Jokowi stated in a meeting with the press held in Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Monday (13/07/2020).
President Jokowi likens the country to a ship. A simpler structure allows the ship to move faster. He frequently stresses the need to act rapidly, especially amid the current COVID-19 pandemic: “I want my ship to be as simple as possible, so that it can move as fast as possible. That is my plan for the organization in the future,” he said. “In the future, whether or not a country is big will no longer be the issue. Even a small country can be powerful if it has the speed. I repeatedly say that “A fast country will always defeat a slow one.” Not a big country will always defeat a small one, not at all. This is what we believe.”
The Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms will submit a list of institutions that are ready to be disbanded to the Ministry of State Secretary. This effort at simplifying the bureaucracy is the continuation of past year’s effort of the disbandment of 24 institutions. Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Tjahjo Kumolo stated that the Employment Authority is currently drafting the basis for disbanding these institutions to be submitted to the Ministry of State Secretary for follow-up action. “We are submitting these detailed considerations to the Ministry of State Secretary, and we will let the State Secretary determine the steps,” he said.
Tjahjo stated that institutions cannot be disbanded all at once. These institutions are created using different legal mechanisms, therefore requiring separate discussions of each. “Some of these institutions are created using Laws, which must be revised. Such revisions require a discussion with the House of Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat – “DPR”). However, institutions created using Presidential Decree, Government Regulation, and Presidential Regulation can be dismantled more quickly,” he said. Tjahjo did not mention which institutions are to be disbanded, but he stated that the list is nearing completion. (dan)