The science committee of Indonesia’s Parliament is calling on the nation’s president to fire the head of its embattled research agency. The demand follows extensive controversy over the government’s efforts to consolidate research programs under the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), as well as a recent audit that has raised questions about how officials are managing the agency’s roughly $400 million budget.
“The president needs to move fast unless we’re going to see more chaos in Indonesian science,” says H. Mulyanto, a member of the House of Representatives panel that oversees research, which is known as Commission VII.
President Joko Widodo has yet to publicly respond to the call to fire Laksana Tri Handoko, a theoretical physicist who jumped into Indonesia’s political arena. Handoko has declined to comment.
In 2021, Widodo appointed Handoko to lead BRIN, a Cabinet-level agency that aims to bring dozens of Indonesia’s research agencies under one roof. But Handoko’s recent efforts to merge 38 agencies into a superbody have sparked protests from Indonesia’s scientific community. Under his leadership, BRIN has laid off hundreds of research assistants and closed several research institutes, including the prestigious Eijkman Molecular Biology Research Center. The agency has also ended or restricted the ability of some agencies to conduct research. For example, it has stopped Indonesia’s National Nuclear Energy Agency (BATAN) from conducting fieldwork aimed at identifying uranium deposits and potential sites for reactors. “The head of BRIN says exploration and doing feasibility studies are not [BATAN’s] jobs anymore,” says Djarot Wisnubroto, former head of BATAN.
Handoko has also come under fire for how he has managed BRIN’s budget. The Audit Board of Indonesia, a government agency, has found that more than 65% of BRIN’s budget this year is not allocated to research, according to a January report in Tempo, an Indonesian media outlet. BRIN scientists have complained their budgets have shrunk in recent years to levels that make it difficult to conduct studies. “We rarely have research activities nowadays. It’s not because we don’t want to but because we don’t have the money,” says one researcher who asked to remain anonymous.
Handoko has suggested he is putting a priority on funding infrastructure, citing moves to build a new secure research facility for studying infectious diseases, a new marine research vessel, and an observatory for space studies. Indonesia’s research infrastructure has been “very weak,” he told ScienceInsider in 2021. “If we give all [BRIN’s] budget for research grants, then we’ll get nothing.”
Handoko’s approach has drawn support from some BRIN researchers. “His policies might be shocking for many, but it is for a better research ecosystem,” says one, who asked to remain anonymous.
BRIN also drew criticism after Indonesian media reported that some of its budget was earmarked for outfitting a well-appointed office for Megawati Soekarnoputri, chair of BRIN’s Steering Committee, who is also a former Indonesian president and a leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP). That plan was reportedly canceled, but other BRIN funds were allegedly used to provide “honorarium” to PDIP politicians and their allies, who gave welcoming remarks at local entrepreneurship trainings.
This month, those reports sparked a rebuke from the Indonesian Young Academy of Sciences, a competitively selected group of midcareer researchers. “BRIN as an overarching scientific body has lost its scientific soul,” it said in a 1 February statement. “We reject any involvement or misappropriation of BRIN for any political interest.”
On 30 January, the controversy surrounding BRIN was on the minds of members of Parliament when Handoko appeared before Commission VII for a budget hearing. Panel members sharply criticized his leadership and the hearing fueled calls for his removal. “We urge the government to immediately replace the head of BRIN considering the many unsolved problems,” says Sugeng Suparwoto, the panel’s head. “It has been nearly 2 years and we’re still dealing with chaos,” Mulyanto says. “It’s such a mess.”
BRIN’s struggles are significant, but politics might also be playing a role in the calls for Handoko’s removal, says Yanuar Nugroho, a science policy specialist at the Centre for Innovation Policy and Governance. He notes that both Mulyanto and Suparwoto are members of a coalition of opposition parties that aims to win the presidency in next year’s elections, so have ample incentive to cast doubt on the competency of the current administration. “This is where substantial problem meets political opportunism,” he says.
The growing support for Handoko’s dismissal does pose “a dilemma for the president,” Nugroho says. “If he doesn’t fire Handoko, the public sentiment is high. But if he does, people will question his decision to follow a recommendation from the opposition. … It’s a very political moment for him.”
Source: Science Mag