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Cabinet reshuffle may still be on the table, Jokowi says
Jokowi remains coy about the possibility of another cabinet shuffle before he steps down in October as rumors swirl around which ministers could be on their way out and who might replace them, though the President's Office has dismissed the notion of a shake-up, at least for the next two days.
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo (left, rear) and Vice President Ma'ruf Amin (right, rear) preside over a cabinet meeting on Aug. 12, 2024 at the newly built Garuda Palace in Nusantara, East Kalimantan, the first cabinet meeting held in the nation’s future capital. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is not ruling out the possibility of another cabinet reshuffle before his second and final term ends in October, as reports emerge that he could sack ministers he perceives as disloyal and replace them with those loyal to him or his successor Prabowo Subianto.
“[A cabinet shake-up] can happen if I feel the need to do so. It’s still my prerogative,” the President told reporters on Tuesday while on an inspection visit in Nusantara, East Kalimantan.
But when reporters followed up with a question on whether the President felt a current need to reshuffle the cabinet, he simply laughed and walked away.
It has been speculated that Jokowi is planning to replace Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif, both from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) that backed him in the 2014 and 2019 elections, as well as Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar of the NasDem Party.
The PDI-P and NasDem are both part of Jokowi’s coalition government but declined to back his preferred successor Prabowo Subianto, who ran alongside Jokowi’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka in this year’s general election on Feb. 14.
Asked about whether his fellow PDI-P members could be removed from their cabinet posts, lawmaker Deddy Yevri Sitorus said he had long been aware of rumors saying that Jokowi was targeting cabinet ministers from the PDI-P.
"We put in enough effort to help [Jokowi] win [the presidency] and support him for the past 10 years so the government can run," Deddy told reporters.
