Cabinet 2009: People’s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono

Those who thought the controversial political career of Agung Laksono was over when he was dumped out of office by voters in the East Jakarta electoral district in Indonesia's legislative elections didn’t count on his ability to take advantage of rising and waning political fortunes and jump between rival camps.

Laksono, 60, made his most recent career move — securing the position of coordinating minister for people’s welfare — after he switched allegiances from former Vice President Jusuf Kalla to Aburizal Bakrie, who went on to win the chairmanship of the Golkar Party.

With his calm, unflappable nature and his pragmatic approach to politics, Laksono is known as the “man for all seasons.”

His ability to ingratiate himself with a long line of Golkar strongmen has helped to continue his career in the legislature and government.

Laksono, a Javanese Muslim, has three children with his Manadoese Christian wife, Sylvia Amelia Wenas.

His son, Dave Laksono, ran in April’s legislative elections and also failed to win a seat in the House of Representatives.

Laksono began his career in the last months of the Suharto era, serving as sports and youth affairs minister from 1998 to 1999.

He was then appointed a member of the People’s Consultative’s Assembly (MPR) from 1999 to 2004, before becoming House speaker for the 2004-9 term. He is now a minister in the “United Indonesia II Cabinet” under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In the early days of his career, Laksono was known to be a close aide to Akbar Tanjung, the one-time chairman of Golkar, but when former Vice President Jusuf Kalla secured the chairmanship at the 2004 party congress, Laksono aligned himself with the Kalla camp.

However, when Kalla stepped down from the Golkar chair approaching the party’s October congress, Laksono threw his weight behind Bakrie, the then coordinating minister for people’s welfare. Along with Akbar, Laksono established a team — known as Triple A — to counter Kalla, who supported Surya Paloh at the party congress.

Bakrie’s victory in securing the chairmanship — in what was essentially a battle of the biggest checkbook — represented a political lifeline for Laksono, allowing him to take over Bakrie’s post in the new cabinet.

During his time in the House, Laksono was seen as failing to improve the legislature’s image, which continued to suffer as a result of a string of corruption cases, although he claimed that he had laid the foundations for House reform.

In 2006, Laksono was accused of politicizing and abusing his power by distributing “education vouchers” worth Rp 470 million ($50,000) during a Ramadan visit trip around Java provinces.

The distribution of the vouchers, normally the responsibility of the Education Ministry, gave the impression of being a Golkar Party initiative because of the presence of party symbols, colors and banners, and was seen as part of Golkar’s campaign for the 2009 elections.

Since taking his seat in the new cabinet, Laksono has not said much in the way of promises, only that he would continue the policies of his predecessor.

These policies relate to poverty alleviation and social security programs, including the state health security scheme (Jamkesmas), the Mandiri National Community Empowerment Program and increasing credit for small- and medium-size enterprises.

Sujana Royat, who is the deputy for poverty alleviation, said Bakrie had left a note for Laksono asking him to push through the implementation of microcredits, which have shown little progress because of a Bank Indonesia regulation stipulating that anyone who had previously applied for any kind of credit was no longer eligible to join the scheme.

Although it might be still too soon to judge, Sujana said that Laksono was similar to Bakrie in many respects.

“He’s very efficient, a straight shooter, and he wants everything to be done within the timeframes he has set,” he said.

Sujana described Laksono as an open-minded person who didn’t mind learning from his subordinates.

“He has often said that he wants us, his subordinates, to fill him in about the ongoing poverty-alleviation programs, and he is always open to suggestions,” he said.

“I think he knows that this is not the time to initiate new policies because the previous ones are still incomplete.”

Laksono’s son Dave, 30, who is active in Golkar’s youth wing and is the former deputy director of communications at Adam Air — a company the elder Laksono was also involved in and which went bust in 2007 after a fatal crash — said he and his two sisters fully supported their father.

“Although he’s very busy, he always makes time for his family,” he said. Dessy Sagita & Febriamy Hutapea

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