Jokowi needs a chief minister, study says

Jokowi needs a chief minister,
JAKARTA. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla’s administration needs a chief minister to manage household matters in the cabinet to further accelerate its performance, a study by the Indonesian Circle Survey (LSI) suggested on Thursday.

"A chief minister is responsible for delivering tasks. This is still an idea but we aim to offer it as a solution,” LSI researcher Dewi Arum said in a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

Jakarta-based poll, she said, was just throwing the idea of appointing a chief minister to the public to test the waters.

The study reveals that 64.63 percent of Indonesians support the notion that Jokowi needs a chief minister while the remaining 31.71 percent of respondents disagree.

Dewi said it was the public’s dissatisfaction that backed the positive responses.

“The decline in public satisfaction over the government's performance in general, pro-government parties' declining images and a lack of solidarity among ministries are some major reasons that have led respondents to agree with us on the importance of appointing a chief minister,” she said.

The quick poll, which involved 600 respondents in 33 provinces across the archipelago, was conducted from Oct. 25 to Oct.27. It used a qualitative study, combining a media analysis method, focus group discussions (FGD) and in-depth interviews. The study was fully funded by LSI.

Aside from the chief minister idea, Dewi said the government should conduct quarterly surveys to measure its performance. In the supervision, she said, the public could score the performances of each ministry and coordinating ministry.

"If such monitoring could be conducted and they could publish reports for the public, we could watch and examine how well the government was being run. The public could be a watchdog to monitor the government, ensuring that they worked for us," Dewi said.

"We suggest one of Jokowi’s ministers be appointed as chief minister. The President doesn't need to bring in a new figure," she said.

According to the study, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut B. Panjaitan ranks top as possible chief minister candidates, supported by 52.3 percent of respondents.