Controversy in Prabowo’s first week as president signals challenges ahead, analysts say

JAKARTA: An official has come under fire for demanding a 300-fold increase in the budget allocated for his new ministry. Family event invitations marked with official government letterhead.

Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto’s administration may be just days old, but his office is already engulfed in controversy.

Just a day after Mr Prabowo was sworn in on 20 October, his newly appointed Minister of Human Rights, Mr Natalius Pigai, immediately drew widespread criticism after he complained on 21 October that his new office would receive only an annual budget of 64 billion rupees (USA). 4 million dollars).

Mr Natalius argued that the Rp 20 trillion budget was more suitable for the newly formed ministry.

“Of the 20 trillion rupees (required), only 64 billion have been provided. The dreams, vision and wishes of the Indonesian president will not be realized,” the minister said, as quoted by BBC Indonesia.

Several politicians criticized the announcement, saying Mr Natalius should have discussed the matter with Mr Prabowo when he took office instead of publicly expressing his dissatisfaction.

“This request should have been discussed within the administration first,” Mr. Andreas Hugo Pareira, a member of parliament from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said in a statement on October 24.

“Every significant increase (in the budget) of one ministry will affect the budget of other ministries or sectors that also require huge amounts of money, such as education, health and infrastructure.”

PDI-P is not part of the ruling coalition and Mr Prabowo did not respond to the incident.

On October 22, Mr. Yandri Susanto, Minister of Villages and Disadvantaged Area Development, was criticized for sending out invitations to the anniversary of his mother’s death using his new office’s letterhead and seal, which were intended for official matters.

Mr. Yandry said he was too busy to notice that his staff had sent out invitations on letterhead.

“I am still new as a minister. I am still learning,” the minister said on October 23, as quoted by news portal Bisnis Indonesia.

This amount of drama in such a short period of time is not a surprise to analysts, given the diverse professional background, political associations and bureaucratic experience of Prabowo’s red-white cabinet.

“They come from different backgrounds and represent different interests. These differences arose because Mr. Prabowo was trying to meet his supporters halfway,” Mr. Hendry Satrio, a political scientist at Jakarta’s Paramadina University, told CNA.

Mr Prabowo’s cabinet, with a total of 116 positions: 48 ministers, 56 deputy ministers, five department heads and seven special envoys, is the country’s largest in six decades.

In contrast, his predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had only 34 ministers and 17 vice-ministers.

The new president decided to allocate several ministries, such as the Ministry of Education and Culture, which was divided into three different institutions: the Ministry of Basic Education, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology; and the Ministry of Culture.

Mr Prabowo argued that the addition of new cabinet positions was necessary to ensure that each minister focused on a specific role and thus improve their effectiveness.

But analysts believe political bargaining may be the real reason behind the decision.

Only about 20 positions in Mr. Prabowo’s cabinet are filled by scientists and technocrats. The rest is made up of politicians from his 11-party coalition, businessmen who supported his election campaign and Mr Prabowo’s former subordinates in the defense ministry and military.

Mr Hendry, from Paramadina University, said such a large and diverse cabinet was prone to internal conflicts and divisions, making the government less effective at doing its job.

“Mr Prabowo needs to regularly review the composition of his cabinet and take decisive action against ineffective ministers if he wants his key programs to be successful,” he said.

“LARGE” CABINET

Mr Prabowo won the presidential election in February with the support of nine political parties.

He has since managed to woo two other parties, the National Awakening Party and the Prosperous Justice Party, meeting separately in August with the leaders of both parties to discuss, among other things, the possibility of them joining the cabinet.

“Prabowo wants political stability so that even those who do not have seats (in parliament) will be accommodated in his government,” Mr Arya Fernandes of the Jakarta-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said at a debate on 25 October .