Legal Basis Polemic (Again) Threatens Danantara Launch

At least twice this week, President Prabowo Subianto has confirmed that the Investment Management Agency Daya Anagata Nusantara, or Danantara, will be launched on Monday (24/2/2025). The first confirmation was made during a joint statement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, on Wednesday (12/2/2025).

In his statement, the President mentioned that Daya Anagata Nusantara, which means the economic power of investment funds, will soon be launched. Daya means energy or strength, anagata means future, and Nusantara refers to the Indonesian homeland. "The nation's wealth is managed and conserved for our future generations," said the President.

Secondly, the President reiterated that Danantara would be launched on February 24, 2025 when he delivered a speech at the 2025 World Governments Summit international forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday (13/2/2025) virtually.

"Danantara, our sovereign wealth fund, will launch with total managed funds of more than 900 billion US dollars (Rp 14.68 trillion) to carry out high-impact investments," said the President in his speech, quoted from the Presidential Secretariat's Youtube.

The task assigned by the President to Danantara is to manage all BUMN assets, including dividends which have so far been non-tax state revenues in the State Budget (APBN).

The President's statement seemed to answer the uncertainty that had occurred. Danantara was originally planned to be launched on November 8, 2024. The plan emerged following the inauguration of Muliaman Hadad and Kaharuddin Djenod Daeng Manyambeang as Head and Deputy Head of the Danantara Investment Management Agency, at the State Palace, Tuesday (10/22/2024).

However, legal basis issues have delayed the launch of Danantara. With its task as a superholding to manage and invest BUMN assets, Danantara requires legality equal to BUMN, which is formed based on the law (UU).

Meanwhile, the legal basis prepared for Danantara is in the form of government regulations (PP) and government regulations in lieu of laws (perppu). In the legal hierarchy, both are under the UU.

A stronger legal basis for Danantara was finally created through the legislative process, riding on the Draft Law (RUU) on the Third Amendment to Law No. 19/2003 on BUMN. After going through various instant processes, in the DPR Plenary Level II Meeting, Tuesday (4/2/2025), the Law that also accommodates Danantara's needs was passed.

Only a few days before the launch of Danantara, both the government and the DPR have not yet opened public access to the third amendment document of Law No. 19/2023 concerning BUMN which has been ratified. Even though this policy contains crucial changes related to the governance of BUMN under the Danantara Investment Management Agency.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher, Yassar Aulia, sees the government's attitude as an indication that there are still internal obstacles in drafting laws, which in terms of procedure actually has the potential to violate the provisions for drafting laws.

In Article 90 of Law No. 12/2011 concerning the Formation of Legislation, Paragraph (1) states that the dissemination of laws that have been promulgated in the State Gazette of the Republic of Indonesia is carried out jointly by the DPR and the government.

"This state gazette means the President's signature. There may still be problems that prevent this document from receiving the President's signature," he said in a telephone call, Friday (21/2/2025).

There are still obstacles in terms of legal basis, which is also reflected in the attitude of Danantara stakeholders who in the last two weeks have chosen to "lie low" in providing information about Danantara.

"I don't want to comment yet if it's not in black and white," said Minister of SOEs Erick Thohir, at his office, Monday (10/2/2025), when asked about the division of authority between Danantara and the Ministry of SOEs.

Deputy Head of the Danantara Investment Management Agency, Kaharuddin Djenod, at the Kadin Tower, Jakarta, Wednesday (12/2/2025), said that certainty regarding the leadership in the Danantara organizational structure would be announced by President Prabowo Subianto himself.

Meanwhile, two figures who are speculated to be included in the Danantara leadership exchange, namely Minister of Investment and Downstream Rosan Roeslani and Deputy President Director of PT TBS Energi Utama Tbk Pandu Sjahrir, tend to avoid media questions regarding their potential involvement in Danantara.

On the other hand, Yassar continued, the lack of access to this policy erodes the space for meaningful participation from the community, which is a mandate of the Constitutional Court (MK) in the process of drafting laws.

He emphasized that the involvement of the community in the process of forming the revision of the BUMN Law is important because this legal basis will regulate the governance of an agency that will manage trillions of rupiah of state assets.

"From the beginning of the planning of a bill, the public should not only know, but also be involved in the legislative processes in a meaningful way," said Yassar.

The effort for meaningful participation in the legislative process of the third amendment to the BUMN Law, according to the Chairperson of Commission VI of the DPR, Anggia Ermarini, has been accommodated through discussions and audiences with academics and economists.

One of them, during the public hearing (RDPU) between Commission VI and BUMN observer from the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, Toto Pranoto; teaching staff and observer of state administrative law from the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, Yuli Indrawati; and senior economist from the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Didik J Rachbini. The RDPU took place at the Parliament Building, Jakarta, Thursday (1/30/2025).

However, both Toto and Yuli admitted to Kompas that throughout the RDPU process they were not shown the draft of the draft bill or the problem inventory list (DIM) of the BUMN Law.

They were only asked by the BUMN Bill Working Committee (Panja) to explain the problems they found in the previous law, which had the potential to hinder BUMN performance.

"I was only informed that Danantara was being discussed (in the RDPU) the night before the RDPU was held," he said.

According to Yuli, to be able to function according to its objectives, apart from being based on the law, Danantara also needs a PP like other government institutions. The preparation of the PP needs to be in line with the actual law, which is currently still a matter of speculation among the public.

"All legal umbrellas (regarding Danantara) must be clear and transparent. Don't let Danantara's presence only move the problems of BUMN that have existed so far. The new system, right, should be formed to bring prosperity," he said.

Toto also has the same concerns about the transparency of the legal basis. In the draft of the BUMN Bill that is circulating informally, there are several articles that have the potential to cause disputes due to the division of authority between the Ministry of BUMN and Danantara.

In the draft policy that he read, it can be concluded that the Ministry of SOEs and Danantara have the same rights in proposing directors and commissioners of SOEs, with final approval in the hands of the President. "If this is true, it means that SOEs still have room for political interests, even though the President is the clearing house," said Toto.

However, as long as there is no BUMN Law document that has been ratified in the State Gazette with the President's signature, all technical matters regarding Danantara are still speculative. Without any certainty of a supporting legal umbrella, the launch of Danantara planned for February 24, 2025 will only be an inauguration of officials filling the leadership positions of Danantara.

Or could it be that if the polemic over Danantara's legal basis is still not resolved, will the government again postpone the launch of Danantara?