Indonesian minister fired over USA citizenship rumour

JUST a month after his appointment to the Jokowi Cabinet, Indonesian energy minister Arcandra Tahar was dismissed on Monday over claims that he holds dual citizenship.

Jokowi has appointed Luhut Panjaitan, coordinating minister for maritime affairs, as acting minister until the appointment of a new energy minister, Pratikno said.

The abrupt replacement came after revelations that Mr Arcandra had become a naturalised USA citizen four years ago.

“Addressing questions from the public regarding the energy minister’s citizenship and after gathering information from many sources, the president chose to discharge Arcandra from his post as minister with honor”, he was quoted saying in Jakarta Globe.

Arcandra Tahar, a former oil and gas executive who lived in the United States for 20 years, was dismissed as a cabinet minister following days of controversy surrounding his dual citizenship.

Since Jokowi took office in October 2014, Indonesia has destroyed more than 170 vessels, according to government estimates.

However, the main challenge is to ensure that the message behind sinking the vessels is not misinterpreted, Bloomberg cited former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa as saying. He was asked by Widodo to join the cabinet as energy minister in late July during a reshuffle of key posts.

Indonesia does not recognise dual nationality, meaning locals who take an oath of allegiance to a foreign country automatically lose their Indonesian citizenship.

Tahar served as president of Houston-based offshore technologies and consulting company Petroneering before returning to Indonesia.