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How Jokowi uses deputy ministers to strengthen his grip on power
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (fourth left) and other prominent ruling coalition members walk to the site of the inauguration of new Cabinet ministers on June 15. (Biro Pers dan Sekretariat Presiden/Laily Rachev)
T
he recent reshuffle saw President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s list of deputy ministers expanded – a move experts said was done to accommodate his own political interests by giving the seats to his loyalists, as he enters the twilight of his second term in office.
Last week, when the President ordered his seventh Cabinet reshuffle in eight years, he appointed two new ministers and two new deputy ministers, and gave an existing deputy minister a new job entirely.
It was the second time in his second term that Jokowi opted to expand the number of deputy minister positions, which some observers noted marked his growing reliance on the use of the position as a political bargaining chip to consolidate his power within the big-tent coalition. This stands in stark contrast to when the President preferred to only have two deputy ministers when he formed his first Cabinet in late 2014 due to budget concerns.
Political analyst Firman Noor of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said the current Cabinet lineup was Jokowi’s attempt to further expand his influence over political parties, as well as to return the favor to parties who had supported him during his reelection win in 2019.
“The Jokowi in 2014 who promised a slimmer cabinet was still naive. But now, he can’t resist giving out [Cabinet] seats,” Firman said. “It’s a shame since the country is facing a lot of problems, but the strategic positions [of deputy ministers] are instead filled with politicians.”
Each addition to the Cabinet on Wednesday is a member of Jokowi’s alliance: retired air chief marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, an old acquaintance of the President, was until recently the Indonesian Military (TNI) commander, while Zulkifli Hasan is chairman of the National Awakening Party (PAN), the latest to join a ruling coalition that commands an absolute majority at the House of Representatives.
Hadi replaces Sofyan Djalil as agrarian and spatial planning minister, while Zulkifli was named trade minister.
