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In recent days, as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has prepared to announce his new cabinet, prospective candidates and political parties have been cautious with their words.
Even the leaders of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has yet to decide whether to come in from the cold and embrace Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, have tempered their comments, somewhat unusually.
Almost all of the political parties expected to have members in Yudhoyono’s cabinet have admitted to opening direct channels of communication to the Presidential Palace or Yudhoyono’s private residence in Cikeas, West Java.
But none has categorically stated it expected to get a ministerial post or that it has been promised one. This unusually tight-lipped approach may be due to the character of the man they are now trying to woo. Yudhoyono is known for his Javanese calm, his reserved attitude and considered approach, which his critics have described as indecisive.
At stake are 34 cabinet posts. Most come with power, privilege and, cynics say, business opportunities. They also offer the opportunity to steer the nation until the next presidential election in 2014.
All the President’s Criteria
Yudhoyono has indicated that many of the cabinet positions will fall to political appointees, much to the disappointment of many, given the president’s huge mandate.
He has also said candidates must have integrity, capacity, experience, skills and “acceptability.” Prospective members must also be able to work together to face the challenges ahead, he said.
Yudhoyono — who in his last term dumped many under-performing or controversial ministers — promised to routinely evaluate the performances of the new cabinet members. The first review would be held after a year and the second after two and a half years, he said.
He has also ordered members of his party to keep quiet, and warned against anyone attempting to exploit the situation during the selection process.
“With all my weaknesses, I don’t need a political broker,” he said.
New Faces, Same Story?
Many analysts have encouraged Yudhoyono to refuse to pander to the interests of his vanquished political foes.
They have urged him to simply choose the right people for cabinet positions, the ones without ties to the same old political parties, many of which are widely perceived as corrupt.
However, he is expected to form a cabinet with a makeup similar to the existing one: evenly split between technocrats and those chosen for political reasons.
Siti Zuhro, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said maintaining 34 cabinet ministers would hamper any attempts to reform the bureaucracy and the poor coordination between ministries.
Cecep Effendy, a political expert from the Indonesian Institute, said a bulky cabinet would be hard to avoid because Yudhoyono would try to please all the disparate groups that supported him.
“In Yudhoyono’s political concept, he’s the kind of person who accommodates all interests. He thinks that cabinet seats should be shared by all, and will even add more seats if possible for the sake of his administration,” he said.
A ‘C’ For First Term
In a poll released on Thursday, 91 percent of respondents said they wanted fresh faces in the cabinet. The survey by Stratos Strategic Policy showed the vast majority wanted a totally reformed cabinet, with only 6 percent believing change was unnecessary. However, 59 percent believed the current cabinet had performed well, with 38 percent calling its performance poor.
Jimmy Siahaan, a political analyst and senior researcher at the Public Policy Study Center, said the 59 percent figure equated to a passing grade. “We can give them a ‘C,’ ” Jimmy said. “There have been no political achievements so special that the cabinet deserved a higher mark.”
Jimmy said the public’s negative sentiment was mostly due to the government’s inability to handle bureaucratic bottlenecks and corruption, which he said was compounded by the lack of coordination between ministries and a lack of leadership.
Rocky Gerung, a political analyst from the University of Indonesia, said the surveys showed that though people may have trusted the president, they didn’t trust his cabinet.
“Economic and political conditions have not gotten better,” he said. “What has been claimed as significant economic growth was actually normal. Without input from the ministers, the economy would still have grown.”
Rocky suggested that Yudhoyono should not deceive his voters by selecting a cabinet from the competing parties, such as the PDI-P and Golkar Party.
“He’ll just disappoint the voters in the long term,” he said.
The five years ahead of the 2014 election will be a testing time for the cabinet, with political parties jostling for the presidency when Yudhoyono is forced to step down at the end of his allowable two five-year terms.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, center, the first lady, Ani Yudhoyono, and Vice President Jusuf Kalla posing with ministers and former ministers from the largely disappointing 2004-9 cabinet and their spouses after a farewell party at Merdeka Palace. (Photo: Widodo S Jusuf, Antara
In recent days, as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has prepared to announce his new cabinet, prospective candidates and political parties have been cautious with their words.
Even the leaders of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has yet to decide whether to come in from the cold and embrace Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, have tempered their comments, somewhat unusually.
Almost all of the political parties expected to have members in Yudhoyono’s cabinet have admitted to opening direct channels of communication to the Presidential Palace or Yudhoyono’s private residence in Cikeas, West Java.
But none has categorically stated it expected to get a ministerial post or that it has been promised one. This unusually tight-lipped approach may be due to the character of the man they are now trying to woo. Yudhoyono is known for his Javanese calm, his reserved attitude and considered approach, which his critics have described as indecisive.
At stake are 34 cabinet posts. Most come with power, privilege and, cynics say, business opportunities. They also offer the opportunity to steer the nation until the next presidential election in 2014.
All the President’s Criteria
Yudhoyono has indicated that many of the cabinet positions will fall to political appointees, much to the disappointment of many, given the president’s huge mandate.
He has also said candidates must have integrity, capacity, experience, skills and “acceptability.” Prospective members must also be able to work together to face the challenges ahead, he said.
Yudhoyono — who in his last term dumped many under-performing or controversial ministers — promised to routinely evaluate the performances of the new cabinet members. The first review would be held after a year and the second after two and a half years, he said.
He has also ordered members of his party to keep quiet, and warned against anyone attempting to exploit the situation during the selection process.
“With all my weaknesses, I don’t need a political broker,” he said.
New Faces, Same Story?
Many analysts have encouraged Yudhoyono to refuse to pander to the interests of his vanquished political foes.
They have urged him to simply choose the right people for cabinet positions, the ones without ties to the same old political parties, many of which are widely perceived as corrupt.
However, he is expected to form a cabinet with a makeup similar to the existing one: evenly split between technocrats and those chosen for political reasons.
Siti Zuhro, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said maintaining 34 cabinet ministers would hamper any attempts to reform the bureaucracy and the poor coordination between ministries.
Cecep Effendy, a political expert from the Indonesian Institute, said a bulky cabinet would be hard to avoid because Yudhoyono would try to please all the disparate groups that supported him.
“In Yudhoyono’s political concept, he’s the kind of person who accommodates all interests. He thinks that cabinet seats should be shared by all, and will even add more seats if possible for the sake of his administration,” he said.
A ‘C’ For First Term
In a poll released on Thursday, 91 percent of respondents said they wanted fresh faces in the cabinet. The survey by Stratos Strategic Policy showed the vast majority wanted a totally reformed cabinet, with only 6 percent believing change was unnecessary. However, 59 percent believed the current cabinet had performed well, with 38 percent calling its performance poor.
Jimmy Siahaan, a political analyst and senior researcher at the Public Policy Study Center, said the 59 percent figure equated to a passing grade. “We can give them a ‘C,’ ” Jimmy said. “There have been no political achievements so special that the cabinet deserved a higher mark.”
Jimmy said the public’s negative sentiment was mostly due to the government’s inability to handle bureaucratic bottlenecks and corruption, which he said was compounded by the lack of coordination between ministries and a lack of leadership.
Rocky Gerung, a political analyst from the University of Indonesia, said the surveys showed that though people may have trusted the president, they didn’t trust his cabinet.
“Economic and political conditions have not gotten better,” he said. “What has been claimed as significant economic growth was actually normal. Without input from the ministers, the economy would still have grown.”
Rocky suggested that Yudhoyono should not deceive his voters by selecting a cabinet from the competing parties, such as the PDI-P and Golkar Party.
“He’ll just disappoint the voters in the long term,” he said.
The five years ahead of the 2014 election will be a testing time for the cabinet, with political parties jostling for the presidency when Yudhoyono is forced to step down at the end of his allowable two five-year terms.
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