JakartaPost-May 22
President Prabowo Subianto will reportedly appoint Lt. Gen. Djaka Budi Utama, a military officer and former member of a special forces team implicated in the abduction of activists, to lead the country’s customs office. This move is seen as part of the President’s growing reliance on military figures to fill key civilian posts. News about Djaka’s possible appointment as the customs and excise director general at the Finance Ministry emerged after he was summoned by Prabowo for a closed-door meeting at the State Palace on Tuesday. Djaka came to the meeting with Bimo Wijayanto, who was rumored to be appointed to lead the Finance Ministry’s taxation director general. Bimo graduated from Taruna Nusantara, a military-style elite boarding school established by the Defense Ministry in 1990 in Magelang, Central Java. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Bimo suggested that he and Djaka would soon join the Finance Ministry. After graduating from the Military Academy in 1990, Djaka has held several strategic posts in the military and the government, including the domestic politics coordination undersecretary at the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister between 2021 and 2023, inspector general of the Defense Ministry and the principal secretary of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN). The three-star general was a former member of the Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus) during the 1990s, which was then led by Prabowo. Djaka has also been linked to Tim Mawar (Rose Team), a notorious elite unit accused of being involved in the abduction and enforced disappearance of pro-democracy activists in the late 1990s, at the tail end of former president Soeharto’s New Order regime. If appointed as the customs and excise director general, Djaka would join several former military officers linked to Tim Mawar who are currently holding positions in the government, such as National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) head Lt. Gen. (ret) Nugroho Sulistyo and Brig. Gen. (ret) Dadang Hendrayudha, who is currently serving as deputy for monitoring and supervision at the National Nutrition Agency (BGN). Djaka’s possible appointment raises legality questions, as Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) executive director Yose Rizal Damuri called it a potential violation to the newly-revised Indonesian Military (TNI) Law. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2025/05/22/plan-to-appoint-ex-tim-mawar-member-as-customs-office-head-raises-question.html.
