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Jokowi's plan for restructured Cabinet could be blocked
Magic number: Chairman of the House of Representatives Commission II overseeing home affairs, Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa (left), delivers his statement during a discussion on the ideal number of ministries that would be in the next Cabinet, while economist Hendri Saparini (center) and constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin listen
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Magic number: Chairman of the House of Representatives Commission II overseeing home affairs, Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa (left), delivers his statement during a discussion on the ideal number of ministries that would be in the next Cabinet, while economist Hendri Saparini (center) and constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin listen. President-elect Joko âJokowiâ Widodo said he planned to streamline the cabinet down to 27 ministries. (JP/AWO) (left), delivers his statement during a discussion on the ideal number of ministries that would be in the next Cabinet, while economist Hendri Saparini (center) and constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin listen. President-elect Joko âJokowiâ Widodo said he planned to streamline the cabinet down to 27 ministries. (JP/AWO)
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span class="inline inline-center">Magic number: Chairman of the House of Representatives Commission II overseeing home affairs, Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa (left), delivers his statement during a discussion on the ideal number of ministries that would be in the next Cabinet, while economist Hendri Saparini (center) and constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin listen. President-elect Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo said he planned to streamline the cabinet down to 27 ministries. (JP/AWO)
A plan to streamline the Cabinet may not be easy to achieve for president-elect Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla, who are having to work hard to convince a fragmented House of Representatives to support the proposal.
The Jokowi-Kalla transition team recently revealed that the pair had come up with a plan to streamline the Cabinet by merging several ministries as well as adding some new posts in order to run the government more effectively.
The proposal, however, could meet its first stumbling block with major political factions at the House likely to fight against the plan given Jokowi's intention to avoid engaging in transactional politics.
A 2008 law on state ministries requires the president to get consent from the House for any changes in the structure of the Cabinet, as stipulated in Article 19 of the law.
'Changes due to the division or merging of ministerial posts should be conducted in consultation with the House of Representatives,' the article says.
The same article, however, also stipulates that the House is considered as having given its approval if it fails to give an opinion within seven days after the president makes his proposal.
A deputy of the Jokowi-Kalla transition team who is in charge of the Cabinet design, Andi Widjajanto, recently said that Jokowi planned to merge several sectors into a single ministry, such as grouping agriculture, fisheries, farming and plantations under a food security ministry.
The plan would also merge the trade and industry ministries.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet design would separate the education sector into two ministries ' one that would focus on handling basic secondary education, which would manage character-building and culture; and another focusing on higher education, research and technology.
Speaking to reporters at the transition team's headquarters in Central Jakarta on Tuesday, Hasto Kristiyanto, another transition team deputy, who is in charge of political communication, said that Jokowi was confident he would secure support from the House for his new design of the Cabinet.
Hasto, a deputy secretary of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), added that the newly endorsed Legislative Institution Law, known as MD3, which regulates internal mechanisms within the country's legislative institution, had also complicated the process.
The new law is set to make it easier for political parties to engage in transactional politics, which could prevent Jokowi from pushing forward with his agenda.
One of the changes from the new law concerns the manner of selection for the House's next speaker, requiring a voting mechanism for the selection instead of automatically granting the position to the PDI-P, as it secured the highest number of votes in the 2014 legislative election. Hasto, however, was optimistic that Jokowi could overcome the problem.
'We must understand that there is a huge opportunity to work together. It's all about how to communicate it,' Hasto said.
The April 9 legislative election failed to produce a majority in the House, with the PDI-P only grabbing 109 seats.
Combined with the other three parties at the House that supported the Jokowi-Kalla ticket, the PDI-P-led coalition only secured a total of 207 seats, compared to 353 seats garnered by the opposition.
Hasto was also confident that the situation would change after Aug. 21, when the Constitutional Court is scheduled to issue its ruling on the presidential-election dispute.
A ruling in favor of Jokowi could prompt several parties, including the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP) to consider switching their support to the winner of the election.
Andi, of the transition team, added that Jokowi and Kalla had said that they would not need to secure the House's consent for the Cabinet design as long as they maintained key ministries, including the law, finance and religious affairs ministries.
'The plan [for the Cabinet design] so far will maintain those ministries. So there won't be any problems with the House,' Andi said.
