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Meet Ilham Anas.. Obama look alike from Indonesia.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Rising fame for Obama 'lookalike'

 

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Jokowi Strikes Eight Names From Cabinet Line-Up After KPK Red Flag
By Novy Lumanauw & Ezra Sihite on 11:20 pm Oct 22, 2014
Category Corruption, Featured, News, Politics
Tags: cabinet, Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Joko Widodo Jokowi, Jokowi cabinet

Many are worried President Joko Widodo’s opaque vetting of ministers excludes groups who harbor legitimate reasons to cross out names. (EPA Photo/Mast Irham)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo eliminated eight of 43 names under consideration for cabinet posts on Wednesday, following the advice of top anti-corruption investigators tasked with vetting.

Joko submitted a list of potential ministers last week to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the agency tasked with money laundering investigations.

“There are eight names” red-flagged by the two agencies, Joko said. “We will find their substitutes. Once finalized, we will announce [the cabinet lineup].”

Candidates assessed as potential suspects in corruption cases or with fishy financial records flagged by the PPATK received a red or yellow mark from the KPK, signifying the candidate’s level of corruption risk. The antigraft body met with Joko on Sunday to return the list of candidates.

The newly inaugurated president has said his cabinet will be made up of 34 ministers, including four coordinating ministers.

This is the first time a president has sought the recommendation of law enforcement agencies in forming his cabinet, winning praise from analysts, activists and the general public.

Joko’s decision to allow the KPK and PPATK to vet cabinet candidates has been criticized by politicians from both the opposition and his own coalition, who say involving the agencies compromises his presidential authority.

Joko’s statement on Wednesday confirmed reports the Jakarta Globe received on Tuesday from a source familiar with the vetting who requested anonymity, that Joko would submit additional candidates for vetting from both agencies after his original picks “received red marks.”

The source said, however, that “only 70 percent of the initial candidates passed KPK vetting and are suitable as ministers.”

If Tuesday’s reports from the Globe’s source are to be believed — that “70 percent” of names under consideration both passed KPK scrutiny and were adjudged “suitable as ministers” — roughly 13 candidates (30 percent) should have been eliminated.

That figure is clearly at odds with Joko’s announcement on Wednesday that only eight names had been struck, suggesting the possibility that as many as five candidates have been waved forward for cabinet-level jobs despite auditors and vetters’ concerns about corruption or incompetence.

‘Publish the names!’

Joko urged people to refrain from speculating about the eight eliminated candidates’ identities.

“Don’t take guesses. I am warning you. This concerns a person’s reputation,” he admonished reporters during a press conference on the State Palace lawn.

However, the Indonesian Legal and Political Monitoring Center (PMPHI), a watchdog based in North Sumatra, argued that Joko and the KPK should publish the flagged names.

“This is for the good of the nation,” PMPHI coordinator Gandi Parapat said. “It is fitting for the names to be published.”

Gandi argued that publishing the names would ensure candidates with potential graft case entanglements will not be elected to public office.

University of Indonesia political observer Ade Armando praised Joko for involving both agencies in shaping his cabinet. If assessed by “some other institutions there could still be subjectivity. But people really trust data from the KPK and the PPATK.”

Ade said Joko should not follow the footsteps of his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose second term in office was crippled after three of his sitting ministers were named corruption suspects in separate cases.

While the names submitted to the KPK have not been made public, a leaked list of 25 names has circulated in national media.

The names include Muhaimin Iskandar, the current manpower minister and chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), one of the four parties in Joko’s coalition.

Muhaimin has been implicated in a corruption scandal at his ministry, but never questioned.

Another name raising eyebrows is Budi Gunawan, a police general among a group of top officers identified by a Tempo investigative report in 2010 as having suspiciously “fat bank accounts.” Budi, the magazine wrote, received billions of rupiah from several contractors mired in legal problems.

More input

Many have urged Joko to include more vetters in the process of selecting his cabinet, in particular the Finance Ministry’s Directorate General of Taxation and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). This, they say, will help ensure ministries are not run by tax evaders or human rights offenders.

On Tuesday, Joko summoned former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief A.M. Hendropriyono and former Army chief of staff Ryamizard Ryacudu, two former generals with checkered human rights records, to the State Palace.

Both served under former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, Joko’s political patron and chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Joko neither denied nor confirmed that he was considering the two retired generals as ministers, saying “of the names called [to meet him at the palace] some were being considered [for minister] and some weren’t.”

Indonesia Corruption Watch also urged Joko to consult with nongovernmental groups and analysts before announcing the final cabinet lineup.

“Aside from corruption cases there are names accused of severe human rights violations. Then there are names who are close to party leaders from [Joko’s] Awesome Indonesia coalition, but have little experience … or have been ministers under the previous government but achieved nothing,” ICW coordinator Ade Irawan said.

Rumored to be up for seats on Joko’s cabinet are the People’s Conscience Party’s (Hanura) Yuddy Chrisnandi, National Democratic Party’s (Nasdem) Siti Nurbaya Bakar and National Awakening Party’s (PKB) Marwan Jafar.

Meanwhile the PDI-P is said to have proposed Tjahjo Kumolo, Pramono Anung, Hasto Kristiyanto, Rini Soemarno and Megawati’s daughter, Puan Maharani. Hasto and Rini served on Joko’s transition team.

Of those names, only Siti was summoned to meet Joko at the Palace.

“I was asked where I went to school [and] my perspective on how the future government should run,” she said, adding that Joko never explicitly said why she was summoned.

Analysts believe that Joko is caught between managing people’s expectations as well as those of Megawati, the PDI-P and its coalition partners.

Political compromise is unavoidable, says Arya Fernandez of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Joko needs to keep his coalition intact, Arya said, pointing to possible resistance from opposition parties who control both the House of Representatives and the People’s Consultative Assembly.

Seats in the cabinet, he added, are also Joko’s main bargaining power to get members of the opposition to switch sides.

Joko, however, denied that anyone — including his transition team — was pressuring him to include names.

“What is the transition team? There is no name being [proposed] by the transition team. Not a single one,” he said. “There is no push from supporting political parties.”

New names

For the last two days, several people who had previously not been rumored as under consideration for minister jobs appeared at the State Palace.

On Tuesday, Joko summoned Chairul Tanjung, chief economics minister under Yudhoyono; Komaruddin Hidayat, rector of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University; and Mirza Adityaswara, the senior deputy governor of Bank Indonesia.

The parade of plausibly ministerial-level profiles continued on Wednesday with University of Indonesia political expert Andrinof Chaniago, Andalas University law expert Saldi Isra, and Yudhoyono’s deputy finance minister, Bambang Soemantri Brodjonegoro.

Joko earlier said he would not openly tell candidates that he was offering them a job, opting instead for informal talks to judge their visions and capacity.

Those summoned say Joko never specified why they were summoned, let alone mentioned the word “minister.”

Saldi, when asked if he had been offered a job, said only: “There was no such conversation … Personally, I would rather be a lecturer.”

With additional reporting by Arnold Sianturi

Jokowi Strikes Eight Names From Cabinet Line-Up After KPK Red Flag - The Jakarta Globe

 

[NarThoD]

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Please post the pictures of new President taking oath with Quran on his head I just read it some where