By Stanley Widianto
JAKARTA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Indonesia's pick to lead the World Health Organization, its health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, told Reuters that the United States should rejoin the agency after its exit at the start of this year.
A banker with stints at IBM and major Indonesian bank Mandiri, Budi is one of six candidates seeking to replace Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the WHO's director-general, along with other nominees from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Botswana, and Belgium.
During Tedros' tenure, the agency lost its top donor after the United States officially withdrew in January, with President Donald Trump accusing it of mishandling the COVID pandemic, a claim the organisation denies.
"Many member states feel that the US should be back. The US should be back," Budi said in an interview, adding that it was "scientifically impossible" to go it alone in the event of a pandemic.
He said he knew US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally. "We can talk easily and the connection is there," he added.
Other candidates are also seen as potential bridge-builders with the United States, including Hanan Balkhy, a Saudi physician who has dual US citizenship.
HEALTH OUTSIDER
Budi was appointed health minister of Indonesia in 2020, and led a massive COVID vaccination drive for the country's 280 million people. He also oversees an ongoing free health screening programme.
Budi is the only candidate for WHO director-general who has not come from the agency or had training in the health sector. Other candidates are either physicians and public health specialists or have previously worked at the agency.
But Budi is focusing instead on his previous fundraising successes after the WHO was forced to slash its budget following the US withdrawal.
He said the WHO could help rally development banks such as Asian Development Bank or the World Bank to help countries create and execute their own national health plans.
"Many of (member states) feel that while they are receiving money from donors, global health institutions, or the WHO, they're being directed to do things driven in the health office in Geneva," he said.
He said "almost all member states" were calling on the WHO to reform, and it "needs to focus back on its core mandate, which is setting norms and standards based on science."
Regaining the trust of WHO members matters more than the budget, Budi said, adding that the agency "has done too many things."
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto personally nominated Budi to enter the WHO leadership race earlier this year, he said.
The WHO will announce all the nominations for director-general later this month, and a vote is expected to take place in May next year.
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by David Stanway)
