Jakarta Globe, Aug 12, 2015
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| The six ministers inaugurated on Wednesday. From left to right: Thomas Lembong, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Darmin Nasution, Rizal Ramli, Pramono Anung and Sofyan Djalil. (Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside) |
Jakarta.
President Joko Widodo has dropped five ministers and reassigned one, in a brief
but long-awaited cabinet reshuffle aimed at addressing the administration’s
widely panned performance on the economic front.
Sofyan
Djalil, the coordinating minister for economic affairs, has been replaced by
former Bank Indonesia governor Darmin Nasution, while Indroyono Soesilo, the
coordinating minister for maritime affairs, has been dropped in favor of Rizal
Ramli, who served as chief economics minister under the presidency of
Abdurrahman Wahid, in the years 2000-01.
Sofyan
replaces Andrinof Chaniago as minister for national development planning.
The key
post of cabinet secretary, essentially the president’s closest adviser, goes to
Pramono Anung, a politician from Joko’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-P), which has been openly hostile to the previous cabinet secretary, Andi
Widjojanto, who was widely seen as shielding the president from the influence
of PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Also out of
the cabinet is Rachmat Gobel, who as trade minister mired himself in
controversy after controversy, including barring imports of used clothing
because he claimed they could spread HIV.
Most
recently, his decision to slash cattle imports led to beef prices surging,
forcing the government to backtrack and increase imports.
The new
trade minister is Thomas Lembong, a former investment banker and chief
executive of Singapore-based Quvat capital, which manages $500 million in
investments, mostly in Indonesia.
Tedjo Edhy
Purdijatno has been replaced as coordinating minister for political, legal and
security affairs by Luhut Pandjaitan, the president’s chief of staff. Tedjo was
always widely seen as a political appointee, given the post as a concession by
Joko to Tedjo’s National Democrat Party (NasDem).
Present at
the ceremony on Wednesday were Megawati, House of Representatives Speaker Setya
Novanto and NasDem chairman Surya Paloh.
Puan Maharani,
Megawati’s daughter, was the only coordinating minister not replaced on
Wednesday. Puan remains the country’s chief welfare minister.
M.
Romahurmuziy, chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), which is part of
the coalition backing Joko, said at the palace that the reshuffle was done only
to be able to meet economic challenges.
“This is
purely about the economic trouble,” Romahurmuziy said. “We know exactly that
global economic challenges have an impact on the rupiah. Because of that, our
performance in the economic sector needs to be taken to another level after the
reshuffle.”
Lucius
Karus, a researcher from the group Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian
Legislature (Formappi), said the decision to reshuffle the cabinet looks to
have been made after careful consideration.
“Jokowi
didn’t want to make a decision purely to respond to public desires without his
own evaluations and thorough study,” Lucius said. “With reliable ministers, Jokowi’s vision and
mission to implement change can be realized.”
Another
observer, Arie Sujito from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, said
everybody should support the president’s move, as it comes at the right time.
“Minister
have to be able to quickly take some concrete steps,” the political expert
said, adding that the president should ignore whoever may feel that they didn’t
get what they wanted out of the reshuffle.
.@jokowi drops five ministers & reassigned one, in a brief but long-awaited #ReshuffleKabinet http://t.co/fjw9DO5NaK pic.twitter.com/NLIkd43kme
— The Jakarta Globe (@thejakartaglobe) 12 augustus 2015
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