Indonesia Highlights: Pertamina CEO Nicke Widyawati 16th on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women 2020 | Indonesia Corruption Watch Emphasizes Government Controversial Policies

KOMPAS.com – As Indonesia struggles to contain and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, the government has another big issue to deal with: the newly passed Job Creation Law.

Students and workers have staged massive protests throughout the country, urging the government to revoke the controversial law.

President Joko 'Jokowi’ Widodo claimed that the massive rallies were fueled by disinformation on social media. But later on, the government also admitted that poor public communication in disseminating information on the Jobs Law was also to blame for the demonstrations.

It has been a tough year for President Jokowi and Vice President Ma’ruf Amin after they took office in October 2019. Critics say that the Jokowi-Ma’ruf administration has been inconsistent in their policies, and efforts to eradicate corruption have weakened.

Amid the current challenging times, a ray of sunshine from the corporate world: Nicke Widyawati. International business magazine Fortune has announced that the president director of Indonesia’s state oil and gas company PT Pertamina has been chosen as one of the most powerful women outside the US this year.

Below are excerpts from the top news in Indonesia, curated by Kompas.com editors:

1. Pertamina CEO Ranks 16th on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International 2020 List

President Director of Indonesia’s state oil and gas company PT Pertamina Nicke Widyawati has been named by Fortune magazine as one of the most powerful women outside the US this year.

Nicke ranks 16th on the annual list. “An engineer by training, Widyawati was made Pertamina’s chief in 2018 after her predecessor [Elia Massa] was dismissed amid restructuring efforts,” Fortune stated on Thursday, October 22.

Her work to oversee an enterprise with more than $54.6 billion in annual revenue and some 32,000 employees worldwide are among the reasons Fortune included her on the list.
The magazine also highlighted her role in transforming PT Pertamina into a holding company with publicly listed subsidiaries over the next two years.

Under her leadership amid the Covid-19 crisis, Pertamina managed to reduce its targets for oil production owing to lower demand and is cutting costs and capital spending.

Source:

https://money.kompas.com/read/2020/10/22/111500226/bos-pertamina-masuk-jajaran-50-wanita-paling-berpengaruh-dunia. 

Kompas.com/Fitria Chusna Farisa Indonesia Corruption Watch Researcher Kurnia Ramadhana at his office in South Jakarta.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said that the efforts to fight corruption have been weakened during Jokowi-Ma’ruf’s first year in office. This was marked by six controversial policies done by the government.

ICW Researcher Kurnia Ramadhana said in a press statement on Thursday that one of the controversial policies under Jokowi’s leadership was when the government issued the pre-employment card program as part of the Covid-19 pandemic social safety net scheme, which is used to resolve unemployment due to the pandemic. The program is not urgent, Kurnia said.

He also touched on the issue of civil servants who hold multiple positions as commissioners in state-owned enterprises, conflict of interest among Jokowi’s millennial advisors and the increase of the premiums for the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) amid the pandemic.

ICW also pointed out the participation of Jokowi’s son and son-in-law, Gibran Rakabuming, and Bobby Nasution, in the upcoming regional elections. Another controversial policy by the government was to proceed with the regional elections amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which could worsen the spread of the coronavirus.

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2020/10/22/20154801/setahun-jokowi-maruf-icw-soroti-6-kebijakan-kontroversial. 

ANTARA FOTO/NOVA WAHYUDI Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko speaks to the press on 20 March, 2020.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has reprimanded all cabinet ministers and other high-ranking officials for the poor public communication regarding the controversial Jobs Law, according to his Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko.

“Many people have conveyed their complaints on the Job Creation Law. We all were reprimanded by the president due to our poor public communication,” Moeldoko said at Presidential Palace on Wednesday, October 21.

He said that the poor government public relations was blamed for the rejection of the Jobs Law and the massive protests by the students and workers until now.

He went on to say that the ministers are now starting to improve their style of communication in public, especially when disseminating information on the Job Creation Law.

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2020/10/21/19430301/moeldoko-semua-ditegur-presiden-komunikasi-terkait-uu-cipta-kerja-sangat.