JAKARTA. Issues on the third cabinet reshuffle are circulating again, following the nomination of the Minister of National Development Planning (PPN)/Head of National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Bambang Brodjonegoro as President of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Bambang’s nomination is even supported by President Joko Widodo. “The President has approved the nomination of Bambang as the President of IFAD,” said Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, last week.
According to Pramono, President Joko Widodo has sent letters to some countries to call for supports for Bambang’s nomination. The election process for the new President of IFAD will be held in this month. This has caused the reshuffle issues to getting stronger.
Let alone, Chief of Armed Forces Gator Nurmantyo will be retired no later than March this year. Information has it that Gatot is set to replace Ryamizard Ryacudu as the Minister of The replacement of the directors of Pertamina (State Owned Oil and Gas Company) has also raised the issues of the replacement of Minister of State Owned Enterprise Rini Soemarno.
Information has it that Rini will be replaced by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ignasius Jonan, while Jonan’s position as the Minister of ESDM will be filled by Arcandra Tahar, the current Vice Minister of ESDM. However, the Presidential Spokesman Johan Budi SP denied the issue. “There is no information about that matter. I did not know about that,” he said.
Considering the time frame
Executive Director of The Political Literacy Institute (Policy) Jakarta, who is also political observer, Gun Gun Heryanto said that the cabinet reshuffle is the president’s prerogative right. “We have to respect it,” he said, Wednesday (8/2).
However, he suggests that the reshuffle needs to consider the context of time and the priority scale. Gun Gun hopes that the cabinet reshuffle shall not be too often, at least one year after the last reshuffle, on the grounds that the reshuffle may create political tensions among people.
The cabinet reshuffle is supposed to be conducted in the third year of the administration, on the grounds that in the fourth and fifth years the President will be busy with arranging strategies for the next election. “The reshuffle is supposed to aim at improving the performance, not as an instrument to divide seats,” he said.
The reshuffle’s issue has been circulated since the end of the last year. According to the news of some mass media, the reshuffle was first echoed by the former Chief of DPR (the House of Representatives) Ade Komarudin.
At that time, Ade said that he will consider an offer to fill a position in the cabinet. The information was confirmed by politician of PDIP (the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) Darmadi Durianto. At the end of December 2016, Darmadi said that the President was evaluating the performance of Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman, Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto, and Minister of Education and Culture Muhadjir Effendy.
The issue became stronger, after the Vice Chairman of Gerindra Party Arief Puyono claimed that Gerindra was offered four ministerial positions, namely Coordinating Minister for Political, Law, and Human Rights Affairs, Minister of Agriculture, and Head of Presidential Staffs.
However, President Joko Widodo has repeatedly stated that there will be no cabinet reshuffle.
(Muhammad Farid/Translator)
