During The Reshuffle, Jokowi Has To Make Sure His New Ministers Don't Just Find A Stage For The 2024 Elections

President Joko Widodo while chairing a closed meeting (Photo: Secretariat of the Indonesian Cabinet)

JAKARTA - The discourse of a ministerial reshuffle in the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet that will be carried out by President Joko Widodo continues to blow.

When Jokowi becomes a reshuffle, there are several things that must be considered in choosing his new minister. One of them is not looking for a political stage to advance in the upcoming 2024 elections.

"Working for the people, nation and state is not for any other interest, including getting ready to become a presidential candidate or vice presidential candidate in 2024," said a political observer from Al-Azhar University Ujang Komarudin when contacted by VOI, Sunday, July 5.

In addition, Jokowi needs to choose a new minister who has the ability according to his ministry post.

"Because even people who are capable or smart will fail if they are placed in inappropriate ministry posts," he said.

The minister chosen by Jokowi, he said, must also be people with integrity, smart, and able to translate the president's vision and mission and implement the programs in that vision and mission in the ministry he leads.

"And most importantly, a minister must care about the fate of the people. Because being a minister or official is to serve the people," said the Executive Director of the Indonesia Political Review.

"It's not what the people want to be served, then pretend to be powerful even though their performance is good," he added.

Some time ago, President Jokowi said he was disappointed and angry with the performance of his ministers. In the cabinet plenary session attended by his ministers, Jokowi admitted that he did not hesitate to reshuffle or reshuffle the cabinet.

The reason is, in times of crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic like now, Jokowi sees that there are still a number of ministers who work mediocre and even do not issue extraordinary policies.

Not only did Jokowi say he did not hesitate to reshuffle, Jokowi also offended a number of ministers in his cabinet. One of them is Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto.

During the session, Jokowi highlighted that the realization of the health management budget was still very small from the total budget of IDR 75 trillion disbursed. From his notes, the former governor of DKI Jakarta said that only 1.53 percent of the budget had been realized.

Survey results: a reshuffle needs to be done

The Indonesia Political Opinion (IPO) released the results of their survey regarding public perceptions about the reshuffle or reshuffling of ministers in the Advanced Indonesia cabinet. IPO Director Dedi Kurniasyah said the public wanted the president to do the reshuffle.

In the survey, 72.9 percent of respondents wanted Jokowi to reshuffle. Meanwhile, 22.4 percent of respondents considered the reshuffle unnecessary and 4.7 percent of respondents admitted to abstaining or not voting.

There are many ministers deemed worthy of being reshuffled in the survey and the one who occupies the top position is Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly.

"Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna Laoly, is consistently in the top position, most hopefully a reshuffle with an assessment of 64.1 percent. Then followed by Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto 52.4 percent," said Dedi as quoted from his written statement.

In the next position, as many as 47.5 percent of respondents hoped that Ida Fauziyah was reshuffled from his position. Then, 40.8 percent of respondents wanted Minister of Religion Fachrul Razi to be replaced from his position.

Furthermore, as many as 36.1 percent of respondents hoped that the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Edhy Prabowo would be reshuffled and 33.2 percent of respondents wanted the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Panjaitan to also be reshuffled.

As many as 30.6 percent of respondents also hoped that the Minister of Social Affairs Juliari Batubara was reshuffled. Then, 28.1 percent of respondents wanted the Minister of Cooperatives and UKM Teten Masduki to be replaced. Finally, 24.7 percent of respondents wanted Menpora Zainudin to be replaced and 18.4 percent of respondents wanted Erick Thohir to be reshuffled.

Dedi said the ministers the public expected to reshuffle were those who were close to Jokowi. Call it Yasonna Laoly and Juliari Batubara who are cadres from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and Erick Thohir who were the former Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin National Campaign Team during the 2019 Presidential Election.

"Do not let this closeness make them do not do better because they feel safe from criticism and correction from the president," he said.

The survey was conducted by involving 1,350 respondents in 30 provinces from June 8 to June 25 with a purposive sampling wellbeing research method, namely interviews by telephone. The confidence level of the survey results is 97 percent with a margin of error or error rate in the survey of 3.54 percent.