The Red And White Cabinet Does Not Reflect Prabowo's Will To Answer The Urgency Of Indonesia's Problems

President Prabowo Subianto congratulated the Presidential Special Envoy for the Development of the Young Generation and Art Workers, Raffi Ahmad at the State Palace, Jakarta, Tuesday (22/10/2024). (ANTARA/Livia Kristianti)

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto's fat cabinet is still in the spotlight. The public often suspects that the Red and White Cabinet (KMP) is only a means of reward for the President for his supporters.

The Red and White Cabinet 2024-2029 was just announced by President Prabowo Subianto on Sunday (20/10/2024) before finally being sworn in the next day. KMP contains 48 ministers and 56 deputy ministers, plus five ministry-level institutions. In total there are 109 ministers and deputy ministers in this cabinet.

Prabowo's fat cabinet occurred after the revision of Law Number 39 of 2008 concerning the Ministry of State which was passed in September last year. With the law, Prabowo and the next president have the right to develop a cabinet of as large or as small as possible, because the number of ministries is not limited.

Several political experts say that the fatness of the Red and White Cabinet occurs as a form of reciprocity to those who support it throughout the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres). Another thing that is also in the spotlight of the formation of KMP is the swelling of the budget due to changes in the nomenclature of a number of ministries.

Yanuar Nugroho, founder and adviser to the Naval Institute, said that if it were true that Prabowo's decision to form a fat cabinet was only to accommodate the political interests, it would be fine, because this is the prerogative of the president.

Meanwhile, the founder of the KedaiKOPI Survey Institute, Hendri Satrio, invited the public not to continue to prejudice the Red and White Cabinet. Instead, he handed over the performance of the KMP ministers, at least until the first 100 days.

"So if at the beginning I have to put my trust first to support them. Because if you don't bother, it's nothing, you've been accused of all kinds of things," said the man who is familiarly called Hensat.

With 48 ministers who were inaugurated by Prabowo on Monday (21/10/2024), KMP has been the fatt cabinet since the New Order era under the leadership of Suharto. This is certainly the talk of many circles.

KMP was later nicknamed a cabinet of gratitude. Founder and advisor to the Naval Institute, Yanuar Nugroho has no objection to the fat cabinet, but he hopes Prabowo can prove that his cabinet is professional. If his cabinet does not show positive performance, political promises in Asta Cita can fail to be realized.

A number of risks will be faced by the cabinet of obesity formed by Prabowo Subianto, according to Yanuar. First, the cabinet cannot operate directly, let alone run. Yanuar said, rearranging, let alone forming a new cabinet or institution takes time to run or work. He gave an example of the establishment of the Peat Restoration Agency (BRG), the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP), and the Archipelago Capital Orotita (OIKN) in the past few years.

"SoTK's business (work organization composition), payroll, work rules, etc. cannot be carried out immediately, even though Prabowo needs his cabinet to be able to work immediately," said Yanuar, in the broadcast of Akbar Faisal Uncesored.

Prabowo will also face another challenge, namely coordination that is not easy because of 48 ministries. According to Yanuar, each K/L often works with horse glasses, aka only focuses on the sector. Former President Joko Widodo even repeatedly complained about the difficulty of coordinating with the 34 ministries below him. What about Prabowo, who has more ministries?

Third, the fatness of KMP makes performance inefficient. According to Yanuar, one business or issue that should be handled quickly by one or two ministries, now takes more time and resources because it is handled by more ministries.

"From here, we can imagine, due to this obesity, the Red and White Cabinet will not be able to fly soon, it will not be able to run fast," said Yanuar.

Although Prabowo has gathered all ministerial and deputy ministerial candidates in the briefing in Hambalang, which Yanuar calls a good and appropriate step, but the briefing alone is not enough.

"Because once it reaches the ministry's concrete work, the complexity of the problems faced is not like during the simulation in the briefing. The complexity is real, ranging from technical matters, bureaucratic administrative, to political problems," continued the lecturer at the Driyakara College of Philosophy Driyakara Jakarta.

President Prabowo repeatedly said that he would support Zaken Cabinet or fabricate in a government whose ministers came from experts and not representatives of a certain political party. However, Yanuar was disappointed because KMP was filled with many people from the Prabowo-Gibran support party in the last presidential election.

"This shows a big political compromise. There are also several artists, although that doesn't mean the artist is not credible. But in this urgent situation, the urgency is not visible in the cabinet," he said.

"This cabinet does not reflect Prabowo's willingness to answer the urgency of Indonesia's problems, because there is a credibility in doubt," Yanuar added.

Yanuar Nugroho hopes that Prabowo Subianto has a solution so that the concerns that have been echoed by many circles, including himself, do not occur. He himself said there were at least three points that he thought could be concrete breakthroughs.

First, supervision and control development. Prabowo needs to continue the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) which was established since the Jokowi era. This KSP, which is actually the continuation of the Presidential Work Unit for Development Supervision and Control (UKP4) in the era of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, must be strengthened.

"Not politically, but technically to control development. Ensuring the president's political promise is translated into development priorities," he said.

Second, tidying up the regulatory framework. He hopes that there will be no conflict of interest between the jumbo ministries. Yanuar said that if the regulations between ministries collided, it was certain that the development program would be stuck.

Finally, formulate an accountability mechanism. This means that one tasked initiative or priority must be clear who is the main person in charge. But planning and budgeting involve not only BAPPENAS (National Development Planning Agency) and the Ministry of Finance, but also BPKP (Financial and Development Supervisory Agency) and the KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission) as prevention.

"Similarly, the supervision of its implementation and evaluation. This prevents corruption from the start," he concluded.