Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo Reflects on Past National Issues

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo addressed a number of debatable issues within the Ministry under his leadership for the past four years, including the electronic ID card (e-KTP) case.

“As soon as I entered the Home Affairs Ministry, the main issue was the e-KTP case. Everybody asked about it. I once ordered its printing to be temporarily stopped for two months before reprinting it again,” Tjahjo recalled in his presentation of the ministry’s achievement for the past four years.

Another hot issue that loomed over the Ministry, according to Tjahjo Kumolo, was his statement on the active National Armed Forces (TNI) officers and police officers who are eligible to be regional leaders. This statement, he said, also had its share in creating public arguments.

The third issue is the hoax aimed at him accusing that the Ministry plans to drop Aceh’s Islamic Sharia, which initially spread wildly through social media. The last and most recent issue is the discovery of a bag full of valid e-KTP cards in an abandoned field in Pondok Kopi and the older incident where the e-KTP bags were being transported to a warehouse in Semplak, Bogor.

In his four-year leadership, Tjahjo Kumolo maintained that the main challenge faced by Indonesia is areas that are prone to corruption, radicalism, social discrepancy, and drug abuse.

FRISKI RIANA