Jokowi, in Rare Tirade, Threatens to Fire Officials Over Cargo Delays at Tanjung Priok

Jakarta Globe, Jun 17, 2015

President Joko Widodo telling officials and reporters what’s what, during a visit to
 Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port on Wednesday. The president threatened to fire
 officials responsible for the notorious delays in moving cargo through the port.
(Antara Photo/Widodo S. Jusuf)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo gave an uncharacteristic outburst during an inspection of Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port on Wednesday, threatening to fire officials responsible for the lengthy delays in moving containers through the port.

“The process takes too long because the people handling it don’t want to move fast,” he told an entourage of officials and reporters.

He noted that Tanjung Priok’s dwell time, or the amount of time a container spends at the port before moving on, was an average of 5.5 days – the longest in Asia, he said. He also said some items took up to a month to clear customs and excise.

Joko added he was well aware of the legendary delays at the port, which handles two-thirds of Indonesia’s international trade, from his experience running a furniture export business, and threatened to fire any officials responsible for the problem.

“Let it be known that if things get [even more] difficult, I can fire the director general, the people on the ground, even the minister. If that’s how you work that’s [what will happen],” he said.

He did not specify which director general or minister he was referring to. The director general of customs and excise is Agung Kuswandono, whose office falls under the purview of the Finance Ministry, headed by Bambang Brodjonegoro. The trade and transportation ministries, which also have a hand in operations at the port, are headed respectively by Rachmat Gobel and Jonan Ignasius.

Joko said it was apparent that no one involved in the process – from loading and unloading containers to clearing them through customs – understood their duties or responsibilities, and chastised the officials around him for glossing over the problems.

“Don’t say everything’s fine. The reality is that [Indonesia] is lagging far behind. So who? Customs or trade? Who should I be speaking to?” he said, repeating the question seven more times.

There was no response from any of the officials.

“Which agency takes the longest time [processing] exports and imports?” the president went on. “There’s gotta be one. So I’m asking again, which one? Fess up, and we’ll fix it.”

Again there was no response.

Joko said the average dwell time at Tanjung Priok should be brought down to 4.7 days if Indonesia was to be competitive with Singapore and Malaysia.

“I want this port to be faster, more efficient, to give the best import and export services, because our business is the service business,” he said.