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| Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed to root out corruption as he swore new ministers into his cabinet on Wednesday, in a bid to boost investor confidence and dismal approval ratings. (Antara Photo) |
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Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed to root out corruption as he swore new
ministers into his cabinet on Wednesday, in a bid to boost investor confidence
and dismal approval ratings.
The
long-awaited cabinet reshuffle included leadership changes in 12 of the
country’s 34 ministries, focussed on improving economic management in a nation
hampered by poor infrastructure and endemic graft.
“Whatever
happens, corruption eradication should be our main agenda. It’s not fair if we
work day and night to improve the welfare of the people if state money is
stolen by a few irresponsible people,” Yudhoyono said.
He added
that the reshuffle was aimed at ensuring Indonesia’s resilience to global
economic turmoil in the United States and Europe, and pledged to balance the
national budget by 2014, his final year as president.
The
president’s key appointment was the new trade minister Gita Wirjawan, a
respected former investment banker likely to support bureaucratic reform in the
sprawling Asian archipelago of some 240 million people.
But
Indonesian analysts said the new appointments announced Tuesday were unlikely
to improve economic mismanagement.
“By and
large the reshuffle is not going to make a huge impact on investment. The
government has only three more years in its term, and having new ministers
coming in is not necessarily going to be efficient,” Standard Chartered
economist Fauzi Ichsan said.
Indonesia
is a member of the G20 group of leading economies and has one of the fastest
growing economies in the world, with growth expected to top six percent this
year.
Yet it is
befuddled by red tape, mired in corruption and its ports, roads and airports
are hopelessly inadequate for the pace of growth it hopes to sustain in coming
years, according to investors and analysts.
The
government last year announced plans to spend 140 billion dollars on
infrastructure until 2014, more than half of which would have to come from the
private sector.
Prominent
political analyst Arbi Sanit blasted Yudhoyono’s cabinet shake-up as cosmetic.
“He’s a
coward. He’s too afraid of offending political parties by sacking
under-performing ministers,” he told AFP.
“The new
ministers are all low-profile people. There are better people out there but he
chose them because they are able to compromise to serve his interests,” Sanit
added.
The
president has been battling to improve his plunging approval rating which hit a
seven-year low this month to 42.6 percent, down from 60.7 percent this time
last year, according to the Indonesia Survey Institute.
Yudhoyono’s
critics say he has lost control of the parliament, which has failed to create
effective policy this term, and that he too often kowtows to coalition parties
with conflicting agendas.
In 2009,
the president won a landslide election on the back of a fervent
corruption-fighting first term, which saw some senior officials and wealthy
businesspeople put behind bars.
But
Yudhoyono’s critics say the president has gone soft on corruption in his second
term, stymied by scandals implicating party members, including the vice
president.
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