An Effective Cabinet
With large political capital combined with the experience of his five years in government, it is very natural many circles expect that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo\'s second term Cabinet will be more effective.
With large political capital combined with the experience of his five years in government, it is very natural many circles expect that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo\'s second term Cabinet will be more effective.
However, concerns remain that the parties that support the President, including the ministers representing them, might be more focused on winning the 2024 election, especially in the fourth and fifth years of Jokowi’s term.
In general, there are four criteria for assessing whether the Cabinet can be said to be effective. First, achieving the targeted goals, especially the priority agenda items. In his speech after the inauguration, the President reiterated his five priority agendas, namely the development of human resources, infrastructure development and connectivity with the local economy, arrangement of regulations for job creation and small/medium enterprises, bureaucratic reform and economic transformation.
Second, political and security stability. These two aspects during the first five years of Jokowi\'s administration were quite good. However, a number of recent events, especially after the presidential election, such as the May 21-22 riots, student and community demonstrations in September and the attack against the coordinating politics, law and security minister, Wiranto, are signs the maintaining political and security stability will not be easy going forward.
Although there are still many complaints from the public about employment, food prices and the number of poor people, the economy is quite stable, with inflation below 4 percent and economic growth at around 5 percent.
Third, economic stability and progress. In his first term, it was clear Jokowi was unable to fulfill his promise to create 7 percent economic growth. However, economic stability was maintained. Although there are still many complaints from the public about employment, food prices and the number of poor people, the economy is quite stable, with inflation below 4 percent and economic growth at around 5 percent.
The President\'s target in his second term is quite ambitious, namely to lay an initial and solid foundation so that by 2045, a century after Indonesia declared independence, our nation\'s per capita income will be around US$22,000 per year, more than five times the current figure.
Fourth, the Cabinet can be considered effective if it is able to carry out a peaceful transition to the next government. Post-Jokowi after 2024 will be a moment of transition from the post-reform generation to an entirely new generation of national leadership dominated by millennials. If these four things can be achieved during the second term of Jokowi\'s government, the structure and composition of the Cabinet he has formed can be considered to have worked effectively.
Effective cabinet requirements
To achieve these objectives, the government and Cabinet must meet a number of requirements. First, there should be a clear priority agenda. Political reality obliges the President to combine a number of elements in his Cabinet, such as members from within parties and outside of politics. The problem faced by ministers from the parties concerns doubts about their capacity/professionalism, integrity and loyalty.
Therefore, the President must appoint ministers from parties based on predetermined criteria. For loyalty, the President must emphasize strong leadership while ensuring periodic coordination with the parties so that the difference in ministerial focus can be reduced. Meanwhile, non-party ministers usually have the potential to experience problems with political support, especially from parties. As such, the President’s appointment of non-party ministers could be met with high political resistance. However, if the President needs non-party figures, support must come from the President so that resistant parties must deal with the President. The President\'s leadership is the key here.
Positions such as the Finance Minister are usually given to non-party figures, which has proven to provide good results. This tradition needs to be continued and expanded.
The priority agenda will receive budget priority and attention. If it is entrusted to party members, there is potential for competition. The President must avoid this. The tradition of giving certain minister posts only to non-party figures has continued since the administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Positions such as the Finance Minister are usually given to non-party figures, which has proven to provide good results. This tradition needs to be continued and expanded.
The second requirement for an effective Cabinet is sufficient political support. In contrast to the government’s first term, political support for President Jokowi for the second term has been present from the beginning in sufficient numbers. The five parties supporting Jokowi in the presidential election control more than 60 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives (DPR). With the inclusion of Gerindra in the Cabinet, the number of seats and political parties supporting the President is more than enough. With the support of six parties, if at any time one party does not follow the government on certain policy issues, the President will still have support from five parties. This is sufficient to facilitate the President\'s agenda in the legislature. The President\'s dependence on the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is also reduced as Golkar and Gerindra control enough seats to almost balance out the PDI-P.
The third requirement is sufficient public support. Since becoming the mayor of Solo, Jokowi has been known as a man of the people. He has led through the method of blusukan (impromptu visits). However, toward the end of the first term, a number of controversies arose, especially regarding the revision of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law and approaches considered repressive to critical voices. There are signs the President’s public support is not as strong as at the beginning of his first term. Therefore, it remains a question mark whether Jokowi can meet this third requirement. A national survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute in early October showed the level of public satisfaction with Jokowi was 67 percent. This is indeed still quite good.
However, as the President of the people enters his second term, this figure should be higher. When SBY entered his second term in October 2009 he had a public satisfaction level of 85 percent. Without sufficient public support, it will be difficult for Jokowi to "appeal to the public" when challenged by political parties.
The fourth requirement is a supportive bureaucracy. Jokowi\'s stated in his inauguration speech that the bureaucracy remained a problem. One key to an effective Cabinet is the bureaucracy. If Jokowi does not fix it immediately, the bureaucracy could become the major obstacle to carrying out his priority agenda.
Leadership
The President’s leadership is key, and is also the fifth requirement. This leadership must be transformative and perform at least two main functions. First, the function of politics. The president must ensure that political support is always available for all government structures, including and especially non-party ministers. This is important because they are the main executors of the President\'s priority agenda. If necessary, the President should appoint a senior figure to be the main political negotiator to ensure coalition unity and shore up other political support.
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Second, the technocratic function. The President should lead the coordination and evaluation efforts, especially within the president\'s office, the Cabinet and the various networks that provide input/advice. Besides that, the President must also ensure coordination and evaluation runs vertically from the central government to all regional governments, both at the provincial and regency/city levels. Without this vertical coordination, the delivery of policies/programs will experience obstacles to reach the community.
The President said in his speech that he worries that governments send but do not deliver programs. The President said that in his second term, he has no burden. This means, the President\'s focus is only on listening to the voices and hopes of the people, and transforming this into public policies that are truly for the public.
Djayadi Hanan, Executive Director of LSI; Lecturer of Political Science of the University of Paramadina.