Cabinet Dilemma

TRAPPED between the desire to establish a professional cabinet and the need to increase support for his coalition in the legislature, Jokowi Widodo must act wisely and cautiously. He has said from the outset that he wanted a coalition without preconditions, no power-sharing with the parties supporting him. Hopefully, the statement that he plans to recruit 16 "party professionals" to fill ministerial posts-out of a total of 34-means he is doing just that. But a more pessimistic point of view is that Jokowi is having doubts about his own initial stance.

The term 'party professionals' is open to varying interpretations. He might mean professionals supported by political parties. But it is also possible that it is members or leaders of these parties that he wants to appoint to the cabinet. The 16:18 ratio of prospective ministers that are party members to professionals shows that Jokowi's cabinet is an improvement over that of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which has 21 ministers from political parties. But it seems that the public will not see a significant change in Jokowi's administration.

September 23, 2014