Harmony With The Minister Becomes President Prabowo's Big Challenge

President Prabowo Subianto during a retreat with KMP ministers in Magelang in 2024. (Photo caption: Intagram Prabowo Subianto)

JAKARTA Political communication expert Hendri Satrio said that the alignment between the president and the ministers in the cabinet was one of the big challenges for Prabowo Subianto in the rest of his tenure.

According to him, this incomplete alignment will create a considerable gap between the president's vision and its implementation by his ministers.

This gap is one of the main factors that affect the effectiveness of the government.

"So indeed in this one year the biggest problem for Mr. Prabowo is that the gap between him and the ministers is quite long. So the gap is really long," said Hensat, Sunday, October 26.

He considered that Prabowo actually had a big vision to advance Indonesia, as illustrated in his inauguration speech which alluded to social inequality.

Unfortunately, only a few figures in the cabinet such as Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, Sugiono, Teddy Indra Wijaya, Angga Raka Prabowo, Prasetyo Hadi, and Sudaryono are considered capable of communicating effectively with the president.

"Apart from the people who have been around for a long time, Prabowo doesn't seem easy to align his vision and mission with cabinet members from other parties, maybe even afraid that these ministers will talk to Prabowo to just ask about his program and so on," said Hensat.

The founder of the KedaiKOPI Survey Institute emphasized that one of the impacts of this inequality is uncoordinated policy communication so that many policies that have not been finalized but announced and disallowed, because they cause confusion for the community.

Hensat mengaku salut karena Presiden Prabowo mau mengakui kurangnya keselarasan dengan para pembantunya di tahun pertama pemerintahan, dan melakukan sejumlah perbaikan.

Dia menyatakan, penugasan Mensesneg Prasetyo Hadi sebagai juru bicara istana sekaligus membentuk Badan Komunikasi Pemerintah merupakan upaya memperbaiki koordinasi dan komunikasi di pemerintahan.

“Pada akhirnya, banyak hal memang harus diperbaiki tapi menurut saya satu tahun ini harusnya masa bulan madu-nya sudah selesai, dan Pak Prabowo perlahan memperbaiki itu, saya mengapresiasi penuh soal ini,” tandasnya.

Hensat said he saluted President Prabowo for admitting the lack of alignment with his aides in the first year of government, and making a number of improvements.

He stated that the assignment of the Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi as a palace spokesman as well as forming a Government Communications Agency was an effort to improve coordination and communication in the government.

"In the end, there are many things that need to be improved, but I think this one year should have finished the honeymoon period, and Pak Prabowo is slowly improving it, I fully appreciate this," he said.