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Gerindra hints politically aligned professionals will sit in Prabowo’s cabinet
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President-elect Prabowo Subianto, along with his coalition members, gestures as he delivers a speech in Jakarta on March 20, 2024, after the General Elections Commission (KPU) announced the 2024 presidential election results. (AFP/Willy Kurniawan)
T
he Gerindra Party has signaled that its chairman, president-elect Prabowo Subianto, may install politically aligned professionals in his cabinet in an effort to ensure an effective government when he takes office next month.
Following Prabowo’s landslide victory in February’s presidential election, his team claimed that his incoming cabinet would prioritize professionalism and competence over political affiliations to ensure the efficacy of his administration.
Gerindra executive Ahmad Muzani said the president-elect wished to have a “zaken” cabinet, which in the Indonesian context denotes one consisting of experts in their fields.
“But this does not necessarily mean that they are outsiders of political parties,” Muzani said on Tuesday.
Over the past few months, a series of unofficial cabinet lineups containing the names of dozens of politicians and business figures who backed Prabowo in the February election have circulated online, fueling speculation that the cabinet may include very few technocrats.
Researcher Nicky Fahrizal of the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said installing technocrats who were affiliated with certain political parties would be a way to balance the need for competent governance and the pressure to accommodate allies.
“I’d say we can expect figures aligned with political parties to fill a lot of ministerial posts in the coming cabinet,” Nicky said.
