PRESIDENT Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration is in hot water after appointing a senior Indonesian Military (TNI) official as interim regent in Maluku despite swelling criticism, fuelling further speculation of a “hidden agenda” and prompting concern over a “prolonged polemic” on the opaque process to replace hundreds of outgoing regional heads.
Home Minister Tito Karnavian recently appointed the State Intelligence Agency’s (BIN) Central Sulawesi bureau head Brig-Gen Andi Chandra As’aduddin as the acting regent of West Seram in Maluku, assuming leadership of the elected regent whose term expired last week.