Jakarta, Ekuatorial — Siti Nurbaya Bakar, a politician from National Democratic Party has been selected to lead the newly-joint Ministry of Environment and Forestry, for the next five years.
Her appointment was announced by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, on Sunday (26/10). Initially, speculation rose that Bakar would be assigned to Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry for her decorative CV in bureaucratic movement.
However, latter she was said to be taking the new role as ministry of environment and foresrty as she has had experiences with environment, spatial planning issues as Lampung planning and development agency deputy chief (or Bappeda) in mid-1990s. She earned her doctoral degree on natural resources at the Bogor Agricultural Institute where she also teaches.
Her new job is predicted will be full of challenges due to the ministries’ merger which have been heavily criticized by NGOs as both ministries carried out different tasks.
In a previous interview, Henri Subagiyo, executive director of Indonesian Center for Environment Law (ICEL), said that the ministers position should be filled by a person with a clear track record in fighting for environment issues. “It is important also that he/she has no political ties with any party because we see politicians are not completely immune with vested interest,” said Subagiyo.
The last one, he added that the minister did not have any relationships with business people related to natural resources.
“The minister should have a good leadership and it does not necessarily means from political party. The position shouldn’t always be political,” he said. “But, it does not mean that they should come from pure academicians because previous ministers have shown little progress on leading the ministry [of environment]. Because, they only teach and not experience at all in bigger management.”
Previous ministers for environment were filled by academicians which were Gusti Muhammad Hatta of Lambung Mangkurat University, South Kalimatan and Balthasar Kambuaya, Cenderawasih University of Papua. Fidelis E. Satriastanti