TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The furor over newly sworn Energy and Mineral Minister Arcandra Tahar's dual nationality has made the government look foolish. President Joko Widodo must make sure the same careless mistake will not be repeated when he picks his ministers, unlike the energy and mining minister whom he summarily canned last week after 20 days in office.
The revelation of Arcandra's dual nationality shows just how chaotic the government's verification system for new prospective ministers and other senior government officials is. The President, who seems to have kept the recruitment of Arcandra a secret for reasons unknown obviously failed to make maximum use of relevant state institutions to do a background check on this one ministerial candidate. To make it worse, rumors abound of 'evil forces' having forced the President's hand. Aside from the question of whether this is true or false, under a steady leadership, everything can be controlled.
Law No. 38/2008 on State Ministers clearly states that a cabinet minister must be an Indonesian citizen. As Indonesia does not recognize dual citizenship, Arcandra lost his status as an Indonesian once he swore allegiance to the United States of America in 2012. Presumably, he also lost his status as a US citizen when he was appointed to an official position in another country. Thus, on paper, Arcandra is now stateless.
The selection of ministers this time around, unlike the one two years ago, was carried out behind closed doors. Jokowi did not, for example, involve the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) nor the Financial Transaction Reporting and Analysis Center (PPATK) for any form of due diligence. He seemed to be avoiding a rowdy public debate by limiting information to as few people as possible. As a result, a selection process that should have been transparent took place in secret.
A strategic position like that of the energy and mineral resources minister is bound to attract a lot of attention. Managing trillions of rupiah is like having a honey pot. It may be that those with vested interests also pitched their respective candidates to the President by criticizing former Minister Sudirman Said. But this clash of interests should not make the President play hide and seek concealing candidates to protect them from surprise attacks. He is free to hold information meetings about candidates out of sight of the public, but state institutions like the KPK, PPATK and the State Intelligence Agency must be allowed to check the background of prospective cabinet ministers.
Regrettably, the government gives the impression it was unprepared to deal with media and social media reporting on the scandal. In the first week of the uproar, the public did not get a clear clarification whether Arcandra held two passports.
For example, State Secretary Pratikno only answered that Arcandra had entered the country using an Indonesian passport, while Arcandra simply said that he had 'returned' his US passport. In an interview with this magazine, he revealed that he had obtained an American passport as a condition of being granted a patent for an invention of his related to petroleum technology.
Arcandra's statement that he had received a US passport on condition he did not lose his Indonesian passport a sign that he still had nationalist sentiments is not a satisfactory argument. It is true that Arcandra is or was not the only Indonesian with two passports, but in our legal system, this is not recognized.
Arcandra's refusal to be open on whether he returned his US passport before or after he was sworn in as minister has prompted an interesting question. If he returned it before taking office, he could have asked the President to delay his appointment until the issue was resolved. If he did that, we cannot accuse Arcandra of intentionally lying to the President and to the people of Indonesia. If this was not the case he hastily retuned his passport after the story broke Arcandra is playing with fire.
The President's decision to fire Arcandra could be referred to as a way of dousing a 'rowdy' fire that had already began to burn out of control. Nevertheless, we should not ignore the opposite view: It would have been better for the President to have annulled Arcandra's appointment instead of firing him. In that way, Arcandra would not have lost his US citizenship which has led him to become stateless. It would also mean that all the decisions that Arcandra took in his 20 days as head of the energy and mineral resources ministry were invalid. This would have made things easier for whoever replaces Arcandra. (*)
Read the full story in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine
