Jokowi Inaugurates Politician-Heavy Advisory Board

Jakarta Globe, Ezra Sihite, Jan 19, 2015

President Joko Widodo and his wife Iriana, left, with Vice President Jusuf Kalla
 and his wife Mufidah, seen at the State Palace presenting the cabinet in this
Oct. 26, 2014, file photo. (Antara Photo/Andika Wahyu)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo on Monday officially inaugurated the nine members of his Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres).

The board consists of senior figures from the military and the religious establishment, but is dominated by politicians.

The new presidential advisers are former Education Minister Abdul Malik Fadjar; Hasyim Muzadi of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama; Jan Darmadi of the National Democrat (NasDem) Party; retired general Yusuf Kartanegara of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI); Lion Air chief executive Rusdi Kirana, who is also a deputy chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB); former People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Sidarto Danusubroto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Strugle (PDI-P); Sri Adiningsih, an economic adviser to the PDI-P; former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret.) Subagyo H.S. of the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura); and Suharso Monoarfa of the United Development Party (PPP).

Separately, Rusdi said that he would step down from his other positions after being inaugurated as a member of the Presidential Advisory Board.

“We have to let go of our other positions at private or state companies and also at political parties,” Lion Air Group co-founder Rusdi said, as quoted by news portal Kompas.com on Monday. “I’ve spoken to the PKB and I was nominated by them [for a position in the Wantimpres],” he added.