IO, Jakarta – President Elect Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is probably having a splitting headache right now. After all, he was blatantly urged to satisfy the demands of the political parties that supported him for his second term at the Presidency. Even though Jokowi has officially stated that the composition in his Second Working Cabinet will be 55% professionals and 45% party members, the supporting parties are still fighting for seats.
Kapitra Ampera, a politician of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan – “PDIP”), stated that the second term is Jokowi’s stake for showing to the people that he is an able president, and therefore worthy to be remembered in Indonesian history. “In his second term, Jokowi must really select ministers with the same vision, mission, and work style as himself. I believe that Jokowi should select professional people all the way. Even if he should elect party cadres, as long as they understand professional issues there will be no problem,” he said.
Similar to Kapitra’s statement, PP Muhammadiyah General Chairman Sunanto (Cak Nanto) stated that President Jokowi should choose ministerial candidates from among professionals instead of from political parties. Therefore, the President should be willing to listen to inputs and aspirations from the people relating to the identity of professional candidates who are worthy of becoming his ministers. “The second term is really a gamble for Jokowi. To help him strengthen his position, he needs to select professional ministers who have the same spirit of fight and optimism in developing the country. Therefore, it is not wrong for Jokowi not to close himself off. Instead, he should listen to the many inputs that would help him get the kind of ministers with the same vision and mission as himself,” he said. “I hope that Jokowi would be open to suggestions. His ministerial candidates must be committed and optimistic. If they come from politicos, even from the first day they are already burdened with their party agenda. I would say that even ministerial candidates who were originally professionals must have approached parties, with whispers among them. After all, they would be interacting with political parties if they were elected.”
Going further than Cak Nanto’s statement, Yudi Hendriana, Indonesian Television Journalists Association (Ikatan Jurnalis Televisi Indonesia – “IJTI”)’s Chairman, stated that the President should not stop the channels of the people’s aspirations, in order to preserve democracy in the country. “Don’t be like the Government during the New Order, which stopped all channels of aspiration. This would cause the Government to run badly. I say that the more we have public discourses with mass bases, the better the inputs will be for Jokowi. The public’s aspiration for candidate ministers should not be received through the People’s Representatives only, because there is a chance that they may not get through. It is the input from mass-based political organizations such as NU and Muhammadiyah, the organizations that contributed to the independence of NKRI, that we should hear first,” he said. (Dan)