For a time, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo looked to have pulled a rabbit out of the hat with his second Cabinet reshuffle last month. While two reshuffles in less than two years may not bode well for stability in government, it has certainly kept Cabinet ministers on edge.

But things unexpectedly took a sour turn when it was revealed that the new Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arcandra Tahar, had taken up United States citizenship. Since Indonesian citizenry law does not recognise dual nationality, it effectively invalidated his Indonesian nationality, in turn making him ineligible for public office.

Amid pressure, the President eventually discharged his 20-day minister “with honour”. Extraordinary as the affair was, throughout its unfolding, a few things quickly became evident.

The initial confusion apparent in the government’s response suggests that no credible background check procedure had been performed by either presidential staff or the Ministry of the State Secretariat. It is the former’s job to liaise with relevant government departments on behalf of the President, while the latter’s job description states that it is “responsible for providing technical, administrative and analytical support to the President and Vice-President in the exercise of their state powers”.

In the spirit of competent and good governance, it is fair to expect the State Secretariat to be vigilant in order to ensure that the President stays within the corridors of law and the Constitution by offering its advice and analyses. Performing thorough background checks of prospective ministers, and to anticipate and advise the President of the potential problems each appointment might present should have been routine work.

Yet, it clearly was not in Mr Tahar’s case. In a moment of restrained candour, Vice-President Jusuf Kalla told the press that an “administrative malfunction” was to blame. Oddly, however, the President’s spokesman, Johan Budi, refused to concede that there had been a breakdown in government function. “Please don’t see the matter in such (a negative) light. We are satisfied that the President was sufficiently responsive to a matter which arose.”

Given that the President had no choice but to respond to the issue, Mr Budi’s answer smacked of redundancy. In view of his edgy mannerism when answering reporters’ questions on the night Mr Tahar was dismissed, it was clear Mr Budi was under orders not to say anything substantive on the matter. President Widodo himself deliberately kept a safe distance as the controversy unfurled, even delegating the announcement of Mr Tahar’s dismissal to the Minister of the State Secretariat Praktikno, when a simple apology could have easily pacified the public.

In lieu of the President’s swift response, his allies — left to their own devices — closed ranks to defend Mr Tahar’s appointment; some even went as far as encouraging the President to break the law. The Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna Laoly, undoubtedly did his office great disservice by his unfounded assertion that Mr Tahar’s US citizenship did not automatically deprive him of his Indonesian nationality, in the absence of a ministerial injunction to the effect.

Another maverick comment came from the gaffe-prone lawmaker from the Democratic Party, Ruhut Sitompul, who said: “We had a Vice-President who later became President, Mr Habibie. He was an Indonesian citizen through and through but had the privilege to live in Germany, given by the government there because of his achievements. Arcandra is just like him. Also, it’s Jokowi’s prerogative as President to appoint anyone minister.”

Mr Habibie’s German citizenship, or some say permanent residency, is difficult to prove, but in Mr Tahar’s case, it is highly unlikely that the US government would have conferred citizenship on him without due application. Contrary to Mr Sitompul’s assertion, even the President cannot break the law.

Criticism is also due for the way Mr Tahar dealt with questions regarding his nationality before his dismissal. Notable in its illogic was when he told the press: “Look at my face. I have a Padang face.” The remark was out of place as a person’s citizenship status is a legal matter irrespective of racial profiling or features. By reverse logic, Mr Tahar should not have qualified as a US citizen as he had an untypical American face.

His defensiveness suggests he had something he did not wish to reveal. Granted that he probably had no intent to deceive the President, the most probable scenario remains that, once he had been sworn in as a US citizen a few years ago, he neglected to notify the nearest Indonesian embassy of his change of status. What he did is illegal, but it is said to be a common practice among Indonesian expatriates.

The Arcandra Tahar affair has also unleashed the nation’s latent xenophobia. Ultra-nationalists charged the disgraced minister with being a “traitor” during his short tenure as it transpired he had approved US mining giant Freeport’s export permit extension.

A citizen-journalism commentator suggested that the scandal had been engineered by an intelligence agency such as the CIA to embarrass the President. A knee-jerk witch hunt also ensued: A teenage member of the national flag-raiser brigade was suspended from duty for having a French passport, though later reinstituted at the suggestion of the Vice-President, and there were calls to investigate Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Rini Soemarmo’s nationality as she was born in the US.

It is interesting how Indonesian nationalism in its extreme forms always imbues foreign powers with almost unearthly powers to spoil Indonesia’s interests. Yet, as the Arcandra Tahar affair showed, even without sabotage, pandemonium seems to be all in a day’s work for the government. Let us hope it has been a lesson well learned for Mr Widodo. Given his penchant for Cabinet reshuffles, it might prove useful. THE JAKARTA GLOBE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Johannes Nugroho is a writer and businessman from Surabaya.