Observers have raised doubts over the quality of new Cabinet ministers picked by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, citing a lack of experience and professional inadequacy.
“There are three legislative election losers in this Cabinet — Patrialis Akbar from the National Mandate Party [PAN], Agung Laksono from the Golkar Party and Helmi Faisal Zaini from the National Awakening Party [PKB],” Indonesian Survey Institute [LSI] political analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Sunday.
Patrialis was named as the law and human rights minister, Agung as the coordinating minister for people’s welfare, and Helmi as the state minister for disadvantaged regions.
Burhanuddin said that he thought one of the main reasons Yudhoyono decided to include them in the Cabinet was because the President wanted to accommodate all of the political parties that played a role in the July 8 presidential election.
“So, we can refer to them as a ‘Cabinet of close associates’. The President is taking a major gamble by establishing such a Cabinet. This is quite mind-boggling for me, because the President, for a fact, has a huge mandate to establish a fully professional Cabinet,” he said.
“First, his party’s votes recorded a significant increase by at least 300 percent during the legislative elections. Second, he retained the presidency by winning over 60 percent of the votes,” he added.
Burhanuddin said that other than the inclusion of several doubtful political party figures, one of the major setbacks was that Yudhoyono had appointed some professional ministers in posts they had little experience of.
“For example, the inclusion of Purnomo Yusgiantoro as the defense minister, while in fact he is a professional in the energy field. His close relationship with the President is the likely reason for this,” he said.
Purnomo is the former energy and mineral resources minister. His inclusion has drawn harsh criticism because even though he was once the deputy governor for the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), he was considered to be lacking in knowledge about defense issues. He also recently admitted that he had no knowledge about the primary weaponry defense system (Alutsista).
A defense expert from the University of Indonesia, Bantarto Bandoro, said that it was also possible that Purnomo was included in the Cabinet because he had proven himself to be “beneficial” to Yudhoyono in the previous term.
“Yudhoyono trusts Purnomo for his ability to provide him ‘benefits’,” he said.
Meanwhile, Setara Institute Director Hendardi said in a press statement that he had major doubts about the quality of Patrialis as a suitable law and human rights minister.
“Patrialis is a mediocre PAN politician. In the context of human rights, Patrialis is well-known as a man who believes in religious dogmas that limit the supremacy of human rights in the corridor of politics,” he said.
Hendardi said that he also doubted the quality of Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi and Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali.
“Gamawan issued a lot of discri-minative regional regulations. Suryadharma Ali, a well-known politician, has close relationships with radical Islamic groups. His personal visit to the perpetrators of the Monas 2008 incident highlights an intolerance that should be questioned,” he said.
Another minister whose appointment has raised many eyebrows is Linda Gumelar, the new minister for women’s empowerment.
Linda’s supporters, such as Golkar’s Burhanuddin Napitupulu, argued that Linda deserved the post because she was an active leader of the Indonesian Women’s Congress (Kowani). However, a political and defense expert from Bandung’s Parahyangan Catholic University, Anak Agung Banyu Perwita, said that he regarded Linda’s appointment more as political accommodation for her husband, Agum Gumelar, who is a prominent senior military figure.
“We all know that Kowani women only deal with jewelry and gossip and have no significant role in women’s empowerment,” he said.
Separately, a political expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jaleswari Pramowardani, said that she would like to give the ministers the chance to prove themselves before judging them.
“The President’s 100-day program must show the spirit of anticorruption in all departments, and it is for us, the civil society to monitor ministers closely to make sure that they do their job,” she said. (hdt)
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