President to Inaugurate Deputy Ministers Today

Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD (center) arrives at the Presidential Palace complex to attend a plenary Cabinet session presided over by President Joko Widodo and Vice President Ma’ruf Amin at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (24/10/2019).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – To optimize the performance of the Indonesia Onward Cabinet, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will inaugurate a number of deputy ministers at the State Palace in Jakarta on Friday (25/10/2019). Furthermore, to strengthen the position of coordinating ministers, the President will issue a regulation to give them veto rights.

In a talk with reporters at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Thursday, the President said the deputy ministers were either political party members or professionals. The most important thing is that they can help ministers.

Regarding the number of deputy ministers being prepared and which ministries will get deputy ministers, the President said he had not kept track of the number. Certain requests, such as from State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir that he have more than one deputy minister, may be granted. This is because Indonesia has around 140 SOEs with a total asset value of around Rp 8,400 trillion (US$597 billion).

“I have told the SOE minister that these [SOEs] be managed with corporate governance. However, the orientation should be serving the people, not exclusively about profit,” the President said.

Separately, State Secretary Pratikno said the President would finalize the number and names of deputy ministers on Friday morning.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

One day after being sworn in, the ministers in the Indonesia Onward Cabinet take part in a plenary Cabinet session presided over by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (standing) and Vice President Ma\'ruf Amin (right, facing camera) at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (24/10/2019).

Veto rights

Pratikno explained that coordinating ministers would be given veto rights to give them more power in carrying out their duties. In the presidential regulation draft that will be approved into law soon, it is mentioned that, whenever there are differences of opinions and conflicts of which there are no solution, coordinating ministers can make decisions regarding what solutions to take in resolving these issues.

The President delivered his plan to give coordinating ministers veto rights in the Jokowi-Ma’ruf administration’s first plenary Cabinet meeting at the Freedom Palace on Thursday.

“There are no visions and missions of ministers, only the visions and missions of the President and Vice President.

In the meeting, the President said that coordinating ministers would have the authority to intervene and veto policies and regulations issued by ministers and state institution heads that contradict the President’s visions and missions.

“There are no visions and missions of ministers, only the visions and missions of the President and Vice President. Please take note of this, as five years ago there were one, two or three ministers who did not understand this,” President Jokowi said.

Ministers are also reminded to work as a team. “We are building a huge country. It is impossible to work alone. Work as a team,” the President said.

He said that coordinating ministers would coordinate this teamwork. Therefore, when invited to meetings by coordinating ministers, ministers and state institution heads must come.

In order to create effective cabinet and government, the President instructed in the meeting that all his helpers should be discipline in adhering to policy-making mechanisms. Government meetings are the only forum to debate differences of opinions regarding policies.

“Once decisions are made in a meeting, there must be no more debates outside the meeting room. If you want to debate in meetings, I will listen. However, once we have reached a decision, we have to go through with it, no matter the risks,” the President said.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto (right) and defense minister for the 2014-2019 term, Ryamizard Ryacudu (left), shake hands at a ceremony for the handover of the position at the Defense Ministry, Jakarta, Thursday (24/10/2019).

Public differences of opinions between ministers took place several times during Jokowi’s first term. Some of them were even blown into open debates in mass media. The issues include energy, food and agriculture. Some of these went as far as becoming open conflicts on the mass media.

During cabinet meetings, President Jokowi also asks that ministers inventory all regulations under their jurisdiction that obstruct progress. The regulations should then be reported in the next cabinet meeting in two weeks.

This is because the President plans to erase regulations that obstruct government work.

After the cabinet meeting, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said that coordinating ministers would be tasked with coordination and ensuring that the President and VP’s visions and missions be implemented by ministers and state institution heads. Therefore, teamwork will be seen in carrying out the President and VP’s visions and missions.

“The President said that coordinating ministers can veto policies ministers under their supervision that contradict the President’s policies or other ministries’ policies,”

The provision of veto rights to coordinating ministers is hoped to eradicate sectoral ego between ministries. Mahfud said that, due to sectoral ego, ministers sometimes sent first- or second-echelon officials to meetings at the office of coordinating ministers. Consequently, ministers felt that they were not present at the decision-making process of certain plans and ended up not implementing it.

“The President said that coordinating ministers can veto policies ministers under their supervision that contradict the President’s policies or other ministries’ policies,” Mahfud said.

Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said that coordinating ministers would also be authorized to intervene contradicting regulations.

Handover

On Thursday, the Defense Ministry held a handover from Ryamizard Ryacudu to Prabowo Subianto.

Read more : Three Handover Ceremonies, then Straight to Work

Gerindra Party deputy chair Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said that Prabowo’s concepts of defense and security were already accepted as Jokowi-Amin administration’s policies. Prabowo will arrange work meetings in defense and security affairs that will be reported to and consulted with the President.