President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo (left, rear) and Vice President Ma'ruf Amin (right, rear) preside over a cabinet meeting on Aug 12, 2024 at the newly built Garuda Palace in Nusantara, East Kalimantan, the first cabinet meeting held in the nation’s future capital. - Photo: Antara
JAKARTA: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is not ruling out the possibility of another cabinet reshuffle before his second and final term ends in October, as reports emerge that he could sack ministers he perceives as disloyal and replace them with those loyal to him or his successor Prabowo Subianto.
“[A cabinet shake-up] can happen if I feel the need to do so. It’s still my prerogative,” the President told reporters on Tuesday (Aug 13) while on an inspection visit in Nusantara, East Kalimantan.
But when reporters followed up with a question on whether the President felt a current need to reshuffle the cabinet, he simply laughed and walked away.
It has been speculated that Jokowi is planning to replace Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif, both from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) that backed him in the 2014 and 2019 elections, as well as Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar of the NasDem Party.
The PDI-P and NasDem are both part of Jokowi’s coalition government but declined to back his preferred successor Prabowo Subianto, who ran alongside Jokowi’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka in this year’s general election on Feb 14.
Asked about whether his fellow PDI-P members could be removed from their cabinet posts, lawmaker Deddy Yevri Sitorus said he had long been aware of rumors saying that Jokowi was targeting cabinet ministers from the PDI-P.
"We put in enough effort to help [Jokowi] win [the presidency] and support him for the past 10 years so the government can run," Deddy told reporters.
“Now, it is up to the President to replace PDI-P politicians in [his] cabinet.”
Just last month, Jokowi installed two members of Prabowo’s inner circle as deputy ministers of finance and agriculture, a move that experts said was aimed at ensuring a smooth transition of power but might pose risks to the economy.
But talk about a cabinet reshuffle again surfaced last week after Prabowo’s Gerindra Party replaced Supratman Andi Agtas as chair of the House of Representatives Legislation Body, reportedly to prepare him to take over Yasonna’s job as human rights minister.
Citing unnamed sources, last week’s edition of Tempo Magazine reported that the President had been unhappy about the PDI-P’s decision in July to extend the terms of the current members of its central executive board to 2025 and to bring in new members that had openly criticised Jokowi.
These unnamed sources, who hailed from the PDI-P and Jokowi’s inner circle, also told Tempo that one of the President’s close associates had reprimanded Yasonna for failing to inform Jokowi about the new lineup of PDI-P executives.
Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, a Jokowi loyalist whose name is reportedly on a list of figures the President wants to see appointed to the cabinet of the incoming government, is thought to replace Arifin as the new energy minister, according to Tempo.
Bahlil is now the front-runner in the race for the Golkar Party’s top post after former chair Airlangga Hartarto’s surprise resignation over the weekend, fueling speculation that Jokowi might be seeking to gain control of the country’s second largest party after the PDI-P.
Unlike the PDI-P, which has been gradually distancing itself from Jokowi and appears prepped to be the opposition in the next government, Golkar supports both the outgoing Jokowi administration and the incoming Prabowo government.
Bahlil and Arifin have both said they had not received any information about a possible reshuffle, while the President’s Office said there would be no cabinet shake-up in the two days leading up to Independence Day.
Rosan Roeslani, who resigned as deputy minister of state-owned enterprises last year after he was tapped as Prabowo’s campaign manager, is reportedly in line to replace Bahlil as investment minister.
Deputy Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Raja Juli Antoni, who hails from the Jakarta-based Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) chaired by Jokowi’s youngest son Kaesang Pangarep, is said to replace Siti as environment minister. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
