Reshuffle rumors grow despite official denial

JAKARTA. The State Palace has again dismissed rumors about another Cabinet shake-up, which have been growing lately, with some suggesting that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo would create a new position of “chief minister”.

The Palace adamantly dismissed the latest rumor regarding a chief minister and insisted that a Cabinet reshuffle was the prerogative of President Jokowi.

“You can see for yourself that the law on state ministry recognizes no such thing as ‘senior minister’, and the President has to abide by the law,” Ari Dwipayana, a member of the presidential communications team, said on Thursday.

Constitutional law expert Feri Amsari deemed the rumor misleading and false, saying that the country’s presidential system had no place for such a position.

“A president can decide to have a cabinet secretary or a presidential chief of staff, since those are basically an issue of administration, unlike a chief minister,” he said.

Article 8 in the State Constitution stipulates that in the event that both the President and the Vice President die or become incapacitated, the foreign minister, the home ministers and the defense minister jointly and temporarily take over the job of the President and the Vice President.

Feri even joked that if someone wanted to translate the term of “menteri utama” into English, it would be “prime minister”.

Last October, a Jakarta-based pollster called the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) proposed the idea of appointing a chief minister to test the waters on whether people supported the notion or not.

The survey found that more than 60 percent of people did think Jokowi needed some kind of chief minister, with Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan ranking first as a possible candidate in the survey.

Ari reiterated on Thursday that the public must respect the President’s prerogative to reshuffle the Cabinet or not, saying that the President wanted the ministers to focus on their tasks and not to be affected by growing speculations on a Cabinet shake-up.

“The authority to evaluate the ministers rests solely in the hands of the President. An evaluation will not always mean removing or not removing a minister, but it is about how to improve [their] performance,” Ari said. “So, an evaluation does not have to end in a removal of a minister, but perhaps in an effort to improve their performance.”

The President, Ari said, continued to build political communication with all parties given that the country applied a multiparty system.

Ari, however, declined to comment on a move by the Golkar Party to approach the ruling coalition.

“It is an internal matter of the party,” he said.

Another speculation that was circulating was that Jokowi could appoint former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioner Johan Budi as a presidential spokesperson.

More than one year after he was sworn in for office, Jokowi is yet to appoint an official spokesperson.

Prior to his position as commissioner, Johan had a successful stint as the antigraft body spokesperson, during which many lauded him for his cool demeanor during a crisis.

However, Ari refused to comment whether or not the Palace needed a spokesperson.

Earlier on Wednesday, various media outlets reported that presidential chief of staff Teten Masduki has signaled that Johan was the best man for the post. (Ina Parlina)