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We need Finance Minister Sri Mulyani as our vice president
But with all due respect to the vice-presidential aspirants, when they are elected they will only be needed by the President in case of an emergency.
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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. (Finance Ministry/-)
W
hoever will be elected as president of this republic for the 2024-2029 term, one thing is for sure: he or she needs a deputy who has a proven track record in running the country’s economic affairs on a daily basis. The next vice president should be nonpartisan and free from conflicts of interest because of family businesses.
Therefore, I propose Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati to be our next vice president, replacing the incumbent, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin. Among my arguments are her integrity, which she demonstrated when she relinquished her position as a finance minister 13 years ago, and her impressive performance in navigating the country’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Born on Aug. 26, 1962, Sri Mulyani graduated from the School of Economics, the University of Indonesia, in 1986. She gained her Master of Science in policy economics in 1990 and her PhD in economics in 1992 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the United States.
Political parties are unlikely to nominate her because she does not belong to them and the politicians, together with their cronies and financiers, cannot expect her to satisfy their greed. They prefer someone who can protect their business and political interests.
It is almost certain the successor of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is one of the three figures who have widely been tipped as presidential candidates. They are Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan.
Meanwhile, for vice-presidential candidates, several names have come to the surface, including West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno and former National Military (TNI) Chief Gen. (ret) Andika Perkasa.
But with all due respect to the vice-presidential aspirants, when they are elected, they will only be needed by the President in case of an emergency. Ma’ruf is a glaring example. His voice is almost unheard on national strategic issues. Jokowi picked him as his running mate in 2019 just to counter attacks on his Islamic credentials from the camp of his then-rival Prabowo Subianto.
