REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The appointment of Retno L.P. Marsudi as foreign affairs minister knocks down gender criticism that Indonesia faced from within and outside the country, stated an international relations observer from the University of Padjadjaran Teuku Rezasyah.

"The appointment of Retno as foreign affairs minister could tear down gender criticism that Indonesia had to face from within and outside the country as its leadership structure at the national level was still dominated by men," Teuku Rezasyah noted here on Tuesday (28/10).

According to him, the appointment was contrary to the widespread belief that the appointed minister would purely be a professional or a professional from political parties.

He said that the new foreign minister was a professional of the ministry's own bureaucracy.

"In other words, the networking systems and cadre in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot be replaced by a person from outside the Foreign Ministry, both with regard to purely professional and a professional from political parties," he affirmed.

He pointed out that the specificity of the current foreign minister is in contrast to other ministers in the Jokowi's cabinet.

"Organizationally, the minister does not need to remodel the existing structure, so that the minister can optimize the strategic plan with the president's instructions," he remarked.

With regard to human resources, he explained that the minister already knew the key figures such as all the directorate generals, secretariat generals, and the inspector generals, including all chief representatives abroad. The minister can help to strengthen the quality of partnership between them.

"While coordinating, the minister just improves the quality of cohesion in the ministry in order to realize the priority programs of the government," he added.

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