TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim was openly admiring President Joko Widodo or Jokowi’s performance in the government. According to Nadiem, Jokowi is the figure who works hard the most in the Indonesia Onward Cabinet.

The Minister expressed his appreciation during his speech in Katadata Indonesia Data and Economic Forum 2020 at the Jakarta Kempinski Hotel on Wednesday, January 30. At that time, the minister was questioned about the government's role as a regulator in the education sector.

"I’d like to tell you, Pak Jokowi works hard the most in the Onward Cabinet. He works for 24 hours. [He] is my inspiration," said Nadiem.

The businessman-turned-bureaucrat said that throughout his time serving as a minister, he learned a lot from Jokowi, including de-bureaucratization at the government level, which he considered to have loosened the administration system.

By applying the knowledge, Nadiem recently issued Kampus Merdeka or the Independent Campus Policy, noting the regulation to ease the opening of new study programs. This means, accredited universities would no longer have to ask for permission to the ministry in light of their respective study programs.

However, the minister designated a condition that the university must prove its partnership with world’s class companies or nonprofit organizations (NGO) such as the UN, World Bank, USAID, State-Owned Enterprises (SOE), Regional-Owned Enterprises, and top 100 world universities based on the QS World University Rankings.

“If [a university] violates the standard, we will just close it down. So we will not issue any permits. Pak Jokowi is the best figure on de-bureaucratization,” he remarked.

Nadiem Makarim was inaugurated as Jokowi’s minister in the Indonesia Onward Cabinet on October 22, 2019. The founder of the country’s decacorn Gojek was expected to bring innovation to the Indonesian education system and improve the quality of human resources.

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA