Indonesia's new President Prabowo Subianto (right) taking the oath of office on Oct 20, 2024, during the presidential inauguration at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta. - AFP
JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto’s inaugural speech on Sunday (Nov 3) has left keen observers yearning for more “policy clarity” on account of the head of state’s ambitious goals and his large administration, a panel discussion concluded.
Prabowo started his first day in office laying out his goals for the next five years, which include food and energy self-sufficiency, poverty alleviation, corruption eradication and strengthening Indonesia’s global standing.
To help him achieve these objectives, the President has invited a diverse array of politicians, professionals and incumbent officials into his cabinet, consisting of 109 bureaucrats who will lead 48 ministries – easily the largest the nation has seen in many decades.
His predecessor, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, only had around 70 people in his cabinet, overseeing 34 ministries.
Adam Schwarz, Indonesia expert and CEO of Asia Group Advisors (AGA), raised concerns over Prabowo’s enlarged cabinet, particularly over plans to split up several existing ministries and create new state agencies.
“To carry out such a big reorganisation takes time. You have to find new buildings, recruit new civil servants [and] create ministerial work plans, among others," Schwarz said during a panel discussion held by The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Sunday.
“This reorganisation raises questions over Prabowo’s policy clarity, especially in his first year of the presidency.” With the 12* additional ministries planned, Schwarz said that Prabowo’s transition to power will likely take longer than usual.
There is also the possibility that an enlarged cabinet will lead to slower government decision-making. With such a large number of ministers, Schwarz said that it was crucial for the President to communicate his goals clearly to all of his aides to prevent any risk of conflicting signals to the public.
Philips Vermonte, executive director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said Prabowo's cabinet is a direct result of Indonesia's electoral system, in which presidential candidates are led to create coalitions of political parties just to be eligible to run.
“All presidents in the past 15-20 years were backed by big-tent coalitions and in return they have had to accommodate their political allies in their cabinet once elected,” Philips said during Sunday’s live-streamed event.
During February’s presidential race, Prabowo was backed by four political parties that collectively held around 45 per cent of the seats in the House of Representatives, including his own Gerindra Party.
Since his election victory, Prabowo has expanded his coalition to include seven out of the eight political parties with seats in the legislature.
A close Gerindra aide has said Prabowo’s camp would court as many parties as possible to ensure an “effective and stable” government.
Hendri Saparani, founder of the Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia, said Prabowo has enlisted the help of additional ministers compared to his predecessors because he has likely prepared strategies to address various domestic economic concerns, such as food shortages, unemployment and poverty.
“However, a large cabinet will complicate the bureaucratic process and add fiscal burden to the state coffers. Detailing his strategies and putting them into action will be a challenge for Prabowo," she told the panel discussion.
Hendri advised Prabowo to create clear guidelines for his ministries on his economic priorities, considering he has brought in Jokowi’s finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
“Prabowo’s priority in economic and social issues is quite different from Jokowi. It will be a challenge for Sri Mulyani to implement a new fiscal approach to fit Prabowo’s policy goals,” she said.
During his first state address on Sunday, Prabowo said the country can achieve food self-sufficiency in the next four to five years and provide nutritious food to children in need across the archipelago.
He also said Indonesia would aim for energy self-sufficiency during his term, through the development of biofuels, geothermal energy and coal power.
Despite being one of the world’s largest rice producers, Indonesia continues to grapple with supply issues, partly because of land use, climate change and technology constraints. Last year, rice production slightly declined to 30.9 million tonnes.
Jokowi vowed to reach national food self-sufficiency when he took office in 2015, but that goal was not met by the end of his time in office.
AGA’s Schwarz said that to reach his ambitious goals, Prabowo needed to implement “disruptive” policies.
“Is he going to push through? Does he have the grit to do it? [That] remains a question,” he told the panel.
In his speech, Prabowo also mentioned that he aimed to continue Indonesia’s “independent and active” foreign policy, which seeks to maintain neutrality and leverage cooperation with as many countries as possible.
“We want to be a good neighbour. We want to follow the saying, ‘One thousand friends are too few, one enemy is too many,’” the President said.
Schwarz said that foreign policy would likely be a top priority for Prabowo, noting how he had spent nearly 10 minutes addressing most of the foreign dignitaries who attended his inauguration ceremony in Jakarta.
“He’s trying to highlight Indonesia as part of the world by addressing all of the foreign leaders. I think this will be a theme of his presidency and he will be more focused on foreign policy compared to Jokowi,” he said.
On the campaign trail, Prabowo said the ideal Indonesian foreign policy is encapsulated in the so-called “good neighbour policy,” denoting Jakarta’s commitment to non-alignment.
“Even our defence outlook will be based on this premise,” Prabowo said last year. - The Jakarta -Post/ANN
