President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has planned to reshuffle his Cabinet in his remaining tenure in office, possibly by kicking three ministers out. A source in the government said the three ministers would likely be Minister of Communication and Information Johnny G. Plate, Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo and Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan.
Reasons for replacement
The source said that the main reason for replacing Plate and Limpo, which are Nasdem Party cadres, was due to the party’s public support to former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan in the 2024 presidential election.
“Jokowi was disappointed with [Nasdem Party chairman] Surya Paloh’s decision to endorse Anies Baswedan as a presidential candidate since Anies is considered a political opponent. Jokowi’s disappointment will be conducted by expelling Johnny G. Plate from his position as communication minister in the upcoming cabinet shake-up,” a source said on November 9, 2022.
Read also: Jokowi to oust Nasdem’s minister after party supports Anies Baswedan for 2024 polls
Plate has been implicated in a graft case worth IDR 1 trillion at the ministry, according to the source.
Ketut Sumedana, spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), said that the AGO conducted a case exposure on October 25, 2022, and found sufficient evidence to support the allegations of corruption in the procurement of the Base Transceiver Station and its supporting facilities.
“Upon receiving the disclosure, the office upgraded the status of the case to one under formal investigation,” he said in a statement.
The AGO searched and confiscated several documents related to this case on November 7, 2022. These documents were from the communication ministry and a private company. The AGO has yet to examine Plate on the alleged corruption case. However, a source said that Plate might be involved. The minister has denied of his alleged involvement in the graft case in local media.
“[The president] has conducted a review of what had transpired. He [Limpo] served as an agriculture minister for several years. Why are we not able to increase the value of agricultural products?” the source told Indonesia Business Post on November 17, 2022.
As for Hasan, who is also chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), the source said that the president was dissatisfied with the minister’s performance since he was sworn in on June 15, 2022, replacing Muhammad Luthfi. Jokowi sacked Luthfi due to his poor performance in handling the scarcity of cooking oil that created chaos in the society.
Nasdem’s ministers should leave cabinet
Political analyst from the Pelita Harapan University, Emrus Sihombing, emphasized that the Nasdem Party and Paloh needed to determine whether their support for Anies was under political positions of the President and coalition partners.
“Anies has been considered as Jokowi’s political opponent. Nasdem cannot merely argue that their support of Anies did not violate any laws. In a political sense, Nasdem and Paloh should consult with Jokowi and coalition partners before supporting Anies,” he said.
Sihombing stated that Paloh and Nasdem did not engage in a double-dealing. As part of the coalition parties supporting Jokowi, they were not supposed to endorse Anies publicly. He even suggested that Nasdem should order their ministers to resign from the cabinet.
“They’d better all leave because they will mobilize themselves for the next presidential candidate. Those three ministers should resign and work tirelessly in support of Anies. It will have a clear political line and they should not play a double game here,” he said.
Alternatively, Nasdem could renounce their support for Anies and join Jokowi and the coalition parties’ choice. “They can withdraw their support for Anies’ presidential candidacy after reviewing it,” he said.
However, Sihombing said that Jokowi was unlikely to remove Hasan from his position since the latter has shown positive results in controlling commodity and staple food prices. “I believe Hasan will remain in the cabinet until the end of Jokowi’s second term,” he concluded.
