Jokowi Praises The Improved Performance Of His Ministers, But Opportunities For Reshuffle Are There

President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo (Photo: Setkab)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) mentioned the reason why he had not carried out a cabinet reshuffle in the first year of his second term.

According to him, the teamwork between ministers is now good, and this is different from his cabinet in the 2014-2019 period. At that time, not even a year, Jokowi did a reshuffle because he thought that his ministers' cooperation was not good.

"The performance of these ministers is teamwork not individual work. Yes, this is better from teamwork. It's better," said Jokowi in a special interview broadcast on Kompas TV, Monday night, November 16.

Jokowi agreed with the threat of changing ministers that had been spoken of because the minister's performance was not good. However, currently he claims, the performance between ministers is quite good. So that the change of ministers has not been carried out.

According to Jokowi, this was evident from the increasing economic growth in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. If in the previous quarter, economic growth was minus 5.32 percent, then in the third quarter the figure was getting better.

"In the third quarter, our economic growth was minus 3.49 percent. It means better. The minus 3.49 figure is supported by government consumption," he explained.

Even so, the former governor of DKI Jakarta does not deny the possibility that a cabinet reshuffle will always be open.

"Yes, it could. It could be next week, it could be next month, it could be next year," he said with a smile.

Furthermore, he said that he would not hesitate to reshuffle if the performance of his subordinates did not comply with the existing standards.

Not only that, Jokowi has repeatedly conveyed to the general chairperson of political parties in his coalition that he does not hesitate to replace any ministers deemed incompetent, including the Chairman of the PDI-P, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"Yes, everything (has been conveyed, red). For the good of this country I will do everything," he said.

Previously reported, a few months to be precise last June, Jokowi was inflamed in front of his ministers to be precise during a cabinet plenary session. At that time, Jokowi was angry because his minister was deemed to have no sense of crisis in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He then threatened to reshuffle his assistants who were deemed slow in working.