Red And White Cabinets Get Fatter, The Impression Of Sharing Positions Is Getting Stronger

JAKARTA Researcher from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Lili Romli, highlighted the structure of the Red and White Cabinet (KMP) which actually got fatter before one year of President Prabowo Subianto's administration and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

According to him, the step to add ministries and deputy ministerial positions actually strengthens the impression of sharing political positions, not for the effectiveness of the government. "Actually, there has been a lot of input submitted to review the composition of this fat cabinet, instead of increasing the number of ministries and deputy ministers," he said, Sunday, October 12, 2025.

He said, this condition gives an impression in the eyes of the public that filling positions is more driven by political motives than bureaucratic needs. So there is an impression as to share positions, whether because of political networks or personally knowing the holder of power. Apart from of course being part of the coalition's interests accommodation to maintain political support in the DPR," added Lili.

He reminded that the composition of the cabinet that is too large has the potential to increase the burden on the state budget. This is because employee or operational spending will swell along with the large number of ministers, deputy ministers, heads of agencies, deputy heads of agencies, special staff, echelon 1 and 2 officials with all their facilities.

In addition, the large government cabinet structure is also prone to creating bureaucratic inefficiency. A fat cabinet can also occur bureaucratic inefficiency. There is a risk of overlapping the function and duplication of tasks," said Lili.

Previously, the Cabinet Secretariat social media account stated that the addition of structures in KMP had an effect on all government programs and budgets to really benefit and be right on target for the community ahead of one year of government.

In fact, on Wednesday, October 1, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya together with State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi attended the invitation of Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto in a limited meeting which was also attended by a number of Cabinet ministers in the economic sector and strategic programs.

The meeting emphasized that the use of the annual budget for each ministry must be in accordance with the absorption power and the targets set. If it does not meet the target, the budget will be diverted to other programs that are considered to be directly felt by the community.