Saying ‘No’ to Party Positioning in Jokowi’s Cabinet

New Form of Government: President-Elect Joko Widodo wants any appointed minister in his cabinet to give up roles within political parties

Jakarta Globe, Deti Purnamasari & Hotman Siregar,  Aug 12, 2014

President-Elect Joko Widodo appears with members of his transition team
in Jakarta on Aug. 4, 2014. (Antara Photo/Widodo S. Jusuf)

Jakarta. President-Elect Joko Widodo has reiterated that the coalition that he is building with political parties is unconditional, meaning that there will be no proportional power sharing with political parties.

Joko maintained that his cabinet will be filled with professionals, either from political parties or independent ones. He also indicated that he wanted to reduce ministerial positions within the cabinet.

“I have mentioned previously about the conditions when establishing the coalition. They already know the answer: it is unconditional,” Joko, who is still Jakarta’s governor and also goes by Jokowi, said at City Hall on Tuesday.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) senior politician Pramono Anung defended Joko’s decision to not fill his entire cabinet with politicians, saying that the move was not meant to disrespect political parties but instead reflected a mature democratic process.

Pramono cited the United States as an example in which public officials, would relinquish their positions in political parties once elected.

“In the US, [people] in the government are not political party officials. Take, for instance, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and others,” Pramono said, referring to the US president and the former state secretary.

Pramono called on coalition parties to accept Joko’s decision, adding that it was the prerogative of the president-elect to make such choices.

Pramono, who is also the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, says that the functions between political parties and government are separate in a modern democracy.

He said Joko’s move was a first in Indonesia’s presidential history.

“This is a genuinely new idea. Based on what I see in the presidential history, Jokowi does not have direct control on political parties. But I appreciate [Joko’s move] if he builds a new tradition like this,” he said.

Most importantly for Joko, Pramono added, is that the president-elect should elect ministers with no political baggage, such as involvement in corruption cases.

Pramono said that in order to pick ministers with clean track records, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has data on public officials who have been involved in graft cases and he can dismiss such individuals.

Muhammad Yamin, chairman of the Jokowi National Secretariat, a supporters group, hoped that Joko would choose non-politicians to fill his cabinet.

“We will monitor and support the house of transition. With regards to the pros and cons, we hope that the cabinet [members] who are elected have no political background,” said Yamin on Tuesday.

Sihol Manullang, chairman of Joko’s volunteer group Projo, also expressed the same view, saying that choosing ministers with no political background will help Joko avoid the trap of accommodating various political parties’ interests.

“I’m sure Jokowi will not be trapped [to accommodate the interests] of political parties. We’re here to protect him from such traps set by political parties,” Sihol said.

Budi Arie Setiadi, coordinator of Joko’s volunteers, envisions no problem if Joko’s cabinet is filled with politicians who are professionals and care about the public.

“If they don’t care about the people, we will drag them in and hold them accountable for their performance,” said Budi.

Slim cabinet

Joko also said that he will form a smaller cabinet and that he would remove the position of deputy ministers in most ministries as part of his budget efficiency measure. There are 34 ministers in President Yudhoyono Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s cabinet, and some have deputy officials. A president has the exclusive privilege of appointing ministers to fill positions that he feels are necessary.

“It depends on the [condition] of every ministry, and it’s related to the budget burden, and the burden is not exactly light. It [the deputy minister’s position] can be removed, or maybe only one or two ministers will get deputy ministers,” said Joko.

Despite already disclosing his plan to remove the deputy minister’s role, Joko was still reluctant to talk about candidates who would fill his cabinet.

Joko said that his team would start considering names in mid-September or following the resolution of the presidential election dispute at the Constitutional Court. The court will issue its ruling, which becomes final, on Aug. 22.

Prabowo Subianto, Joko’s contender in the presidential election, challenged the ruling General Election Commission (KPU), which declared Joko as the winner. Prabawo alleged fraud in the election that benefited Joko.

Joko said that his transition team is still identifying problems in the government’s bureaucracy as well as formulating programs that will be prioritized.

Identifying problems and formulating priority programs would ensure a smooth transition of power from Yudhoyono’s administration to Joko’s.

“We haven’t advancted to [selecting] names [of cabinet ministers] yet. The team is preparing a transition from the SBY administration,” Joko said, referring to Yudhoyono by his initials.

The transition team is headed by Rini M.S. Soewandi, the former industry and trade minister during Megawati Soekarnoputri’s presidency. Rini is being assisted by four deputies, namely PDI-P deputy secretary-general Hasto Kristianto; secretaries of Joko’s campaign team Andi Widjajanto and Akbar Faisal; and Joko’s campaign team spokesman Anies Baswedan.

The tasks of the transition team include drafting programs and policies for Joko’s administration and to help find cabinet ministers based on Joko’s needs.

Akbar said that the first criterion to become a cabinet minister was not competence but courage.

“Pak Jokowi has set three criteria, the courage to take action, being clean and being competent. The first is not competence but the courage to take action,” Akbar stressed. “It’s not a matter of who but whether [that appointed minister] can or is able to take a stand.”

Akbar also said that the transition team was working according to Joko’s style and that their duties would finish at the end of September.

“Right now we are preparing the mechanism of the programs, and we will leave it up to the president [elect] and the vice president [elect] to choose the ministers,” said Akbar.

Joko has also asked Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama to offer suggestions on people who would make a good fit in his cabinet. Joko, though, declined to disclose Basuki’s suggestions.

Political analyst Arbi Sanit hoped that Joko and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla would eliminate three ministries to prevent overlapping in coordinating policies, and that ultimately there should be only 20 ministries in his cabinet.

He cited the position of the coordinating ministry of the economy, for instance, which failed to coordinate the distribution of cooking gas to households following increases in subsidized fuel prices and problems related to food imports.

“SBY’s cabinet has been very ineffective. There has been an overlapping of [policies] between the agriculture minister and the trade minister on those cases,” Arbi said.

He said that Joko should liquidate the Religious Affairs Ministry, the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry, the Research and Technology Ministry, the Maritime Ministry, the Manpower Ministry, the Industry Ministry and the three coordinating ministries for economy, security and the people’s welfare.

Arbi said that those ministries are only wasting the state’s budget and have made the government ineffective.

“In the future, Jokowi should have only 20 ministers. The Public Works Ministry can be merged with the Transportation Ministry and the National Land Agency. The Social Affairs Ministry can be merged with the Health Ministry,” he said.

Papua People’s Council (MRP) chairman Vitalis Yumte said that the new government should consider setting up a new ministry to handle provinces with special privileges such as Aceh, Papua, Yogyakarta, and Jakarta.

“As for Papua, we really need a ministry to handle Papua issues so that all the problems can be solved quickly and effectively,” said Vitalis.

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