TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Five Cabinet Ministers were seen at the State Palace to meet with President Joko Widodo on Friday, July 22, 2016 - despite the fact that none of these ministers in question had any formal appointment with the President, fuelling rumours of an impending reshuffle.
The Ministers who were spotted at the Palace this afternoon include the Minister for Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman, the Minister for Public Works and Housing Basuki Hadimoeljono, the Minister for Children Protection and Women Empowerment Yohana Yembise, the Minister for Cooperatives Puspayoga, and the Secretary Cabinet Pratikno Singgih.
The surprise visit is suspected to be initiated by the President to evaluate their performance - and this suspicion was later confirmed by Presidential spokesperson, Johan Budi SP.
That said, Johan stopped short of stating whether the evaluation is related to rife rumours of an impending cabinet reshuffle. "If you ask me about [the reshuffle], I have no clue - it is the President's prerogative and I believe he is the only one who knows what's going to happen," said Johan at the State Palace on Friday, July 22, 2016.
Rumours of an impending reshuffle began to emerge after the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Golkar Party decided to switch their allegiances and ditched the opposition to support the government. Furthermore, both PAN and Golkar had both openly said that they have prepared a list of names that are being groomed should a reshuffle is in order.
The reshuffle issue has refused to recede as President Joko Widodo himself has repeatedly stated that he would not hesitate to replace any ministers that he deems as incompetent. That said, President Jokowi - as he is often referred to - has never said named any names, nor detailed an approximate timeline of when a reshuffle might happen.
Instead, President Jokowi repeatedly called on his ministers to work as hard as they can in the posts that they have been trusted with. "Yes, an individual minister's competence is a deciding factor when it comes to reshuffling a cabinet member - but a reshuffle is not meant to happen regularly," said Johan to the Press.
Based on Tempo's observation, the Ministers did not come as an entourage - and each Ministers were told to wait at a holding area before they were summoned to meet with the President. "I didn't see any other Ministers," said Yembise. "And I'm not sure whether that meeting could count as an evaluation - all I was asked to do was to increase public involvement in my Ministry's programmes."
The Minister for Cooperatives, Puspayoga, concurs with Yembise. "I was invited for an evaluation - but I was only asked to improve the quality of our co-op network," Puspayoga said.
Different to Puspayoga and Yembise - who seemed tense when asked about the meeting - the Minister for Public Works and Housing Basuki Hadimuljono seemed relaxed when asked about the meeting. "I came to discuss our plan for the Habitat Day - which will happen next week," Basuki said. "There was no evaluation, as you can see, I am as relaxed as I can be."
ISTMAN MP
