President-elect Joko âJokowiâ Widodo has assured that his Cabinet will be less prone to corruption than the current one even though he has allocated 16 of the 34 ministerial seats for political party members
resident-elect Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has assured that his Cabinet will be less prone to corruption than the current one even though he has allocated 16 of the 34 ministerial seats for political party members.
A member of Jokowi's transition team, Manahara Sijintak, said on Wednesday that Jokowi and the team had developed a holistic system that would prevent corruption within his Cabinet.
Manahara, a member of the legal working committee, said that the system was ready to go in the first stage of recruitment.
'From the recruitment stage, to [assessing] track records as well as criteria, until the controlling stage- the system will be at work,' he said.
According to Manahara, unlike President Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono, Jokowi will monitor his own Cabinet.
'Jokowi will not rely on outside institutions to monitor his Cabinet,' he said, citing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) as such institutions.
One of the tools that he will use is social media, according to Manahara.
'Through his e-blusukan [electronic impromptu visits, Jokowi will monitor social media to see whether his Cabinet's performance is in line with his programs,' he said.
Jokowi would also use reports from his subordinates on the performances of his ministers, Manahara added.
The monitoring would encompass all aspects of the ministers' performances, including behavior and budgeting, he said.
Besides the recruitment and monitoring, Jokowi would also make efforts to strengthen the legal system and law enforcement, Manahara said.
'One of the attempts is through the reverse burden of proof principle as well as the confiscation of assets,' he said, adding that the working committee had discussed formulating a law regulating the reverse burden of proof principle.
Many had expected Jokowi to fill his Cabinet predominantly with non-party professionals to avoid corruption cases that have often implicated party members who also hold ministerial posts.
When Jokowi announced his decision to award 16 seats in his Cabinet to party members, it was met with criticism, with some saying that Jokowi has failed to form the politically impartial Cabinet he had promised.
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) political analyst J. Kristiadi said on Wednesday that political parties in the country were inherently prone to graft practices as desire for power usually hindered their ability to think logically.
'The weakness of political parties is the dominance of their leaders. Party members are sometimes forced to alter their thinking due to their leaders,' he said.
After announcing the structure of his Cabinet, Jokowi and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla appointed three undisclosed experts to review and finalize the pair's 34-minister Cabinet structure.
Andi Widjajanto, one of Jokowi-Kalla's transition team deputies, said that the three experts were 'quarantined' in an undisclosed location outside Jakarta to protect them from any form of intervention.
The three were tasked with scrutinizing the Cabinet proposal, down to the organizational structure of each ministry to see if there was still room for efficiencies or if there were overlapping functions.
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