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Analysis: Big-tent politics could pose huge challenge for Prabowo
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Presidential-elect Prabowo Subianto, along with his coalition members, gestures as he delivers a speech on March 20, 2024, in Jakarta, after the general election commission announced the 2024 presidential election results. (AFP/Willy Kurniawan)
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rushed law revision might allow Prabowo Subianto to build a big-tent coalition government after he is inaugurated on Oct. 20 as Indonesia’s eighth president, but the bigger question is if he has the skill and acumen to manage the diverse political parties and pressure groups he is bringing into the fold.
Outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is a master at managing a coalition government, unlike any other head of state that preceded him. Effectively using both carrots and sticks, he single-handedly controlled the parties in his big-tent administration and fended off their challenges over past decade to always come out on top.
All nine political parties in the House of Representatives agreed this week to revise the 2008 State Ministries Law to remove the current cap of 34 ministries that a president can have in their cabinet.
The parties also agreed to remove the requirement that only career civil servants may be appointed deputy ministers. In addition, deputy ministers should be counted as cabinet members, which would automatically increase the size of the cabinet. For example, the Jokowi administration has 17 deputy ministers (not all career civil servants in contravention of the existing law), so his cabinet would expand to 51 ministers and deputy ministers under the revised law.
After a limited debate over the proposed revisions, the draft law revision is now awaiting formal House endorsement. This is expected before the current House’s dissolution on Sept. 30 to make way for the new crop of legislators who were either elected or reelected in February’s general election.
Prabowo will need as many cabinet positions and key administrative posts as possible to offer as incentives for political parties and interest groups to join his government.
He is aiming to form an even bigger coalition government than Jokowi’s, and already has the support of the seven political parties in the next House.
