New Cabinet Provides Momentum to Restore Public Trust

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Elementary school students wear masks picturing the faces of the pair of President Joko Widodo and vice president-elect Ma\'ruf Amin to be used as references for their friends to draw at the Aeng Aeng Republic, Nusukan, Surakarta, Central Java, on Wednesday (16/10/2019).

The public satisfaction in Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Jusuf Kalla\'s government performance is declining. The formation of the new Cabinet should provide momentum to improve the public trust.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The formation of the new Cabinet should provide momentum for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to strengthen the public trust that has begun to erode. To strengthen public trust, elected ministers should be able to portray themselves as symbols of democracy, humility, capability and performance.

With these characteristics, ministers can be accepted and appreciated by the public. The public acceptance will become social capital for President Jokowi\'s government to work in the 2019 to 2024 period.

This momentum needs to be used to respond to the fluctuating confidence of the public in the performance of the administration of President Jokowi and Vice President Jusuf Kalla over the past five years.

A survey conducted by Kompas’ Research and Development from 19 Sept. to 4 Oct. 2019, involving 1,200 respondents in 34 provinces with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percent, indicates 58.8 percent of respondents were satisfied with the performance of the Jokowi and Kalla’s government.

This level of satisfaction is not the highest but also not the lowest during the five years of Jokowi and Kalla\'s administration. The highest level of the public satisfaction was 72.2 percent, as indicated in an April 2018 survey, while the lowest point was recorded in April 2015, when it was 53.8 percent.

The head of the Political Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Firman Noor, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that in order to strengthen social capital, President Jokowi needs to show empathy toward the perspective of the grassroots, not just pay attention to the views of the political elite.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

President Joko Widodo (right) follows People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) deputy speaker and National Mandate Party chair Zulkifli Hasan (left) to speak to journalists after a meeting on Monday (10/14/2019) at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta. They discussed several current issues, including amending the 1945 Constitution and forming a government coalition. The President also met with Democratic Party chair Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Gerindra Party chair Prabowo Subianto earlier in the week.

In addition, the formation of the new Cabinet, which is within the President\'s authority, according to Firman, could be a decisive moment for the 2019 to 2024 government in regaining the people’s trust. The ministers picked by Jokowi should be able to be symbols of democracy, humility, capability and not present high political nuance.

"Ministers must be able to be accepted by the community, be pro-people, humble and able to increase trust in the government," Firman said.

A Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) researcher, Arya Fernandes, said President Jokowi needed to set priorities in the second period of his administration in order to fulfill his promises and programs outlined during the 2019 election campaign.

"The first test is on the establishment of a professional Cabinet, filled with people without conflicts of interest, so that the priorities can work," said Arya.

Conversely, a Cabinet that consists mostly of members of supporting political parties can make it more difficult for President Jokowi to make decisions in favor of the people, especially if the coalition consists mostly of government supporters.

The results of the Kompas survey also showed that the highest satisfaction of the public was in the performance of the government in politics and security (64.3 percent), followed by social affairs (59.4 percent), economics (49.8 percent) and law (49.1 percent).

Regarding public perception, the lecturer at the School of Social and Political Sciences at Gadjah Mada University, Arie Sudjito, said that President Jokowi in his last term had the opportunity to complete programs that had not been implemented in the previous term.

If the Cabinet he forms is able to make breakthroughs, supported by popular leadership, the public trust in Jokowi\'s government will return.

Based on that orientation, he should appoint ministers who are able to make breakthroughs. "If the Cabinet he forms is able to make breakthroughs, supported by popular leadership, the public trust in Jokowi\'s government will return," Arie said.

Arie believes that Cabinet integrity, ministerial solidarity and the Cabinet\'s ability to respond to future challenges will also affect public perceptions of the performance of the Jokowi administration in the next five years.

Cause of decline in public trust

The erosion of public confidence in Jokowi\'s administration was caused by many factors. According to Firman, a student demonstration in September 2019 that rejected a number of draft laws, including the revision of the Corruption Eradication Commission Law, showed that there were signs of public dissatisfaction in the government and legislature, especially in making regulations.

Public satisfaction in the performance of the Jokowi-Kalla administration, said Firman, is declining because their policies in recent times have been seen as incompatible with the wishes of some people.

The public still needs reinforcement of the symbols of the people’s sovereignty and democracy, such as elements of civil liberties and freedom of speech. The people want this to be demonstrated by the Jokowi-Kalla government.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

President Joko Widodo (right) and Gerindra Party chair Prabowo Subianto hold a tête-à-tête on Friday (11/10/2019) at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta. They discussed a number of current issues, including the sociopolitical, economic and security conditions in the country, as well as the possibility of appointing Gerindra politicians to the Cabinet during the President’s second term in office.

In addition, Arie said he believes that the decline in Jokowi\'s social capital could also be triggered by a series of strong political tensions, such as the political conflicts during the 2017 Jakarta governor election and the 2019 presidential election, as well as the strengthening of identity politics.

"It is natural the trust in Jokowi\'s government is lower compared to when he was first elected in 2014 because when he appeared he was part of the people’s hope when political tensions were not as strong as now," Arie said.

Influence of social media

The deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) for the government program division, Arif Wibowo, said that restoring public confidence would be a major challenge for President Jokowi in his second term.

The only way to restore the trust is to focus on implementing policies and programs related to people\'s welfare. For this reason, said Arif, strong political support is needed from the House of Representatives. Related to this, Jokowi has recently held a series of meetings with the chairmen of a number of political parties.

Because of that, Jokowi and the coalition of supporting political parties are considering increasing the number of coalition members. However, Arif said the decline in public confidence in Jokowi and Kalla’s government was also caused by the public opinion circulating on social media.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (at the microphone) and Ma’ruf Amin (second left), his running mate in the 2019 presidential election, speaks in June (30/6/2019) after the General Election Commission (KPU) determined them to have been the elected president and vice president for the 2019 to 2024 term. The Jokowi and Ma’ruf pair got 85,607,362 votes, 55.5 percent of the total national eligible votes.

According to him, the decline in trust did not necessarily occur because of poor government performance.

In the future, according to Arif, the government needs to improve the pattern of communications to the public and to ensure that ministers and elite members around Jokowi have the same perceptions for addressing the developing issues. (AGE/REK)