IO, Jakarta – Competition for ministerial seats in Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin’s upcoming cabinet continues to roil. After Jokowi met with the Chairpersons of his supporting parties, he recently invited the Secretary Generals of the same parties to the Palace. Chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) Ahmad Basarah said there was no specific discussion related to the allotment of Ministerial seats or the composition of the leadership of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) during the meeting.
According to him, the meeting was to consolidate Jokowi’s coalition. “Not specifically talking about individual positions. These Secretary-Generals only affirmed that the upcoming cabinet must remain solid in guarding Jokowi-Maruf Amin for the next five years,” he explained in the Parliament building.
Unlike PDIP, which was reluctant to comment on the allotment of ministerial seats, Secretary-General of the United Development Party (PPP) Arsul Sani revealed that his party was likely to get more than one ministerial seat. “God willing, more than one. Already, that’s the answer,” Arsul said when met at the MPR Building.
However, Arsul did not specify how many total ministerial seats his party would get. Arsul also claimed not to know about what ministerial positions his party will get. According to him, President Joko Widodo only mentioned the number of seats. Jokowi has not yet told which ministry posts to be given to who. “It is still the same to this day. Mr. Jokowi has not yet mentioned the posts to all the coalition parties supporting him,” Arsul said.
Regarding the possibility of PPP getting the position of the Minister of Religious Affairs as in the current cabinet, Arsul left the decision up to President Jokowi, because the decision was the prerogative of the Head of State. “That (position) is up to Mr. Jokowi. Either the Minister of Religious Affairs or the Minister of Women’s Empowerment, all kinds of positions,” Arsul said. As is known, current Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin is a PPP cadre. However, PPP only occupies one ministerial seat in the current cabinet.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General of the Democratic National Party (NasDem) Johnny G. Plate said that the meeting of the Secretaries-General with Jokowi only discussed technical matters. According to Johnny, the meeting was not unusual, because the Secretaries-General also play an important role in the party. It also followed the meeting between Jokowi and the General Chairpersons of the coalition parties last month. (dan)