Killing a Bureucracy

With a rare move in an age where the universal answer to all problems seems to be "more bureaucracy", Indonesia instead is going to disband one:

The Constitutional Court declared Tuesday that the existence of upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas was unconstitutional because it degraded state control over natural resources.
 

The court’s panel of judges found BP Migas did not directly manage oil and gas and instead handed it over to state-owned companies or private companies through cooperation contracts. According to the judges, such a mechanism had limited access for the state to maximize the benefits of natural resource management for people’s welfare as stipulated in Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution.

But of course the regulations themselves are not going to disappear*:

The SKSPMigas task force was quickly created by the government after the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of BPMigas in a verdict issued on Nov. 13 that declared the body unconstitutional.

The court ordered the government, namely the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, to temporarily take over the functions of the erstwhile regulatory bureau until a new permanent body could formed under a planned revision to the 2001 Oil and Gas Law or until the formulation of a new law.

The easiest prediction is that most of the higher-ups of BP Migas will recycle themselves in the ESDM or within new agencies that may be formed for the purpose of regulating oil & gas industry. So not much will change, network of connections included. Or some new folks will start receiving invitations for get-togethers from the same old businesses.

*In my position I know quite well the damage that oil spillages and other accidents can cause, so you won't find me supporting a "let's pump this oil out of the ground and who cares" approach.