Analyzing President Prabowo Subianto’s First State Address within the Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) framework
writen by Yuliasman Chaniago
After being inaugurated on October 20, President Prabowo Subiyanto immediately stepped on the gas to prepare the government structure by appointing Ministers and Heads of other State Institutions to consolidate power to execute the strategic targets he wants to achieve during his term. Although involving observations of political activities, this article is not about politics, but about how we view the process of achieving President Prabowo’s vision from the perspective of Governance, Risk Management & Compliance (hereinafter referred to as GRC).
Quoting the General Election Commission document, the vision of the Prabowo Subiyanto – Gibran Rakabuming Raka pair is Together with Indonesia Progressing Towards Golden Indonesia 2045, which is realized through the following missions: (1) Strengthening the ideology of Pancasila, democracy, and human rights (HAM); (2) Strengthening the state defense and security system and encouraging national independence through self-sufficiency in food, energy, water, creative economy, green economy, and blue economy; (3) Increasing quality employment, encouraging entrepreneurship, developing creative industries, and continuing infrastructure development; (4) Strengthening human resource development (HRD), science, technology, education, health, sports achievements, gender equality, and strengthening the role of women, youth, and people with disabilities; (5) Continuing downstreaming and industrialization to increase added value domestically; (6) Building from the village and from the bottom up for economic equality and poverty eradication; (7) Strengthening political, legal, and bureaucratic reform, as well as strengthening the prevention and eradication of corruption and drugs; and (8) Strengthening the alignment of harmonious life with the environment, nature and culture, as well as increasing tolerance between religious communities to achieve a just and prosperous society.
This article was written entirely as a contribution of thought to help achieve President Prabowo’s vision and mission. Because in essence, GRC is a tool that can be used by anyone in managing an organization (including government organizations) to ensure that the set targets (in this case, President Prabowo’s vision) can be realized reliably and with integrity (principle performance). In his inaugural speech as President before the General Session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) which was also attended by leaders of neighboring countries and strategic partner countries, the President delivered a fiery speech that repeatedly received applause and standing ovations from the MPR session participants. The main messages related to GRC in his speech can be summarized as follows:
(1) A statement that he will lead sincerely, prioritizing the interests of all Indonesian people, prioritizing the interests of the Indonesian Nation and People above all interests; (2) He repeated the words of his oath in his speech to defend the 1945 Constitution, implement the applicable laws and regulations, to serve the country and nation; (3) He revealed that the challenges, threats and dynamics of world turmoil are not light amidst global turmoil; (4) God’s gift to Indonesia with abundant natural resources that are very important for human life in the future, but we must be brave to see the obstacles, threats, barriers and constraints that we experience which mainly come from ourselves; (5) A description of a number of strategies to achieve his vision including eradicating corruption, food self-sufficiency, energy self-sufficiency, toddler nutrition, protecting the weak, downstreaming of resources, an atmosphere of togetherness and not bickering, democracy that is in accordance with the nation’s culture, to leaders and bureaucracy that work for the people, not for themselves and relatives.
Points (1) and (5) of the summary of the speech above are statements related to Governance, namely providing direction regarding the business model that must be taken to achieve the target (vision). Points (3) and (4) are statements about Risk Management, where he emphasized the potential opportunities and obstacles that will be overcome both from external and internal sources, but he emphasized that internal risks are more dominant for the current Indonesian context, where we are not yet professional in managing the resources we have. Point (2) is a statement about Compliance, where he will maintain the Constitution, and comply with the applicable laws and regulations. Compliance in the context of Government is certainly different from Compliance in the context of non-government, because the Government also has the function of making Laws and Regulations, so it is possible that in its implementation the Government changing a number of regulations so as not to violate existing laws/regulations. According to Vincente & da Silva (2011) an important part of Governance is setting targets (objective setting), determining roles and accountability (role & accountability), determining strategies, (building culture, and determining risk appetite). Except for setting targets, others have been clearly depicted in his inaugural speech. Risk appetite is shown by the call to dare to face the challenges that lie ahead, as well as the cry of Independence at the end of the speech. Implicitly, this implies that his risk appetite is in a progressive area (bolder than President SBY who also has a military background but is relatively conservative or risk averse). The dynamics of President Prabowo’s government in the past week have been colored by the Minister of Villages’ Letter which was commented negatively by Prof. @mahfudmd, and the retreat of ministers and heads of state institutions at the Military Academy in Magelang. A number of other important statements from him are that he is risking his political career with a free nutritious food program, and inviting anyone who does not agree with the program to leave the government he leads.
Overall, from a GRC perspective, President Prabowo has made a positive start for his administration with a strong message and action, typical of his leadership style. The challenge ahead is ensuring that the government remains under the control of the GRC. While in the US, the GRC is managed by the West Wing of the White House, in the SBY administration, the GRC is managed by the Presidential Working Unit for Development Monitoring and Control (UKP4). We have yet to see a clear picture from President Prabowo regarding which institution is responsible for running the GRC. Hopefully, we will get an answer in the coming weeks.
