President Joko Widodo faces a challenge in forming a Cabinet that is free of political party interests. He has stated that the Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin cabinet will comprise 55 percent professionals and 45 percent politicians.
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JAKARTA, KOMPAS – President Joko Widodo faces a challenge in forming a Cabinet that is free of political party interests. His pledge to form a Cabinet dominated by professionals is at stake amid a scramble by political parties to be included in the government-supporting coalition.
President Jokowi has stated that the Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin cabinet will comprise 55 percent professionals and 45 percent politicians. This emphasis on professional ministers was seen in the Cabinet of Jokowi’s first administration, which has 21 professionals out of 34 ministers.
However, many fear that President Jokowi will face difficulties in achieving this same feat in his second administration, as he will need to accommodate the interests of not only his supporting parties but also those outside his coalition that may potentially support him, such as the Democratic and Gerindra Parties.
On Sunday (13/10/2019) evening in Jakarta, Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto met with the chairman of a Jokowi-Amin supporting party, namely NasDem Party’s Surya Paloh. After the meeting, Prabowo said that he would not mind whether his party sat within or outside the government. He emphasized that, for him, national unity would be of utmost importance. Meanwhile, Surya said that it would not be a problem whether Gerindra joined the government-supporting coalition or not.
Cabinet’s composition should not be seen as a dichotomy between professional ministers and party-member ministers.
Previously, on Friday (11/10), Prabowo met with the President. The day before, on Thursday (10/10), President Jokowi met with Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Public skepticism
A Kompas R&D poll on 9 and 10 October 2019 involving 512 people in 17 big cities in Indonesia showed that 56.6 percent of respondents saw political transactions dominating the Jokowi-Amin administration’s Cabinet-forming process. Only 29.9 percent of respondents said that Jokowi could be fully independent in choosing his ministers.
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) researcher Arya Fernandes said that the President should seriously consider having professionals dominate his Cabinet.
“As he will not run again [for reelection], Jokowi requires a professional Cabinet to ensure his focus on and commitment to his governance agenda. Ministers from political parties tend to be busy with party affairs,” he said.
Gerindra Party deputy chair Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said that the party had proposed concepts in food security, energy security, defense and economics. If the concepts are accepted, Prabowo will propose names for relevant ministerial positions. Dasco said that Gerindra had two options, namely proposing non-party-member professionals or party members.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said that, if Jokowi and the chairs of his coalition’s political parties chose to include more parties, the Cabinet’s professionalism would not be sacrificed by any sharing of power.
He said that the Cabinet’s composition should not be seen as a dichotomy between professional ministers and party-member ministers.
Hasto said that, other than professionalism, ministers should also have strong legislative support to ensure smooth administration of government programs.