TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Trapped between the desire to establish a professional cabinet and the need to increase support for his coalition in the legislature, Jokowi Widodo must act wisely and cautiously. He has said from the outset that he wanted a coalition without preconditions, no power-sharing with the parties supporting him. Hopefully, the statement that he plans to recruit 16 "party professionals" to fill ministerial posts-out of a total of 34-means he is doing just that. But a more pessimistic point of view is that Jokowi is having doubts about his own initial stance.
The term 'party professionals' is open to varying interpretations. He might mean professionals supported by political parties. But it is also possible that it is members or leaders of these parties that he wants to appoint to the cabinet. The 16:18 ratio of prospective ministers that are party members to professionals shows that Jokowi's cabinet is an improvement over that of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which has 21 ministers from political parties. But it seems that the public will not see a significant change in Jokowi's administration.
Resolving the dilemma between involving and not involving the parties in his government will not be easy. For example, before the election, Jokowi did not promise cabinet seats to the parties supporting him-something that could be seen as a way of minimizing the role of parties in the government. But we must remember that Jokowi's administration will not be strong without party support-both from inside and outside the coalition he has built. It is difficult to separate party support from party ambition in the cabinet: in other words, sharing out seats.
The presence of parties in the cabinet is already perceived as something negative. It is hard to conclude that political party-affiliated ministers in Yudhoyono's administration did a good job. For example, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali concurrently the United Development Party chairman, resigned from the cabinet after he was indicted in the haj corruption scandal.
Before that, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng, who is also a member of the Democrat Party executive committee, was convicted of corruption in the Hambalang case. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister and Secretary of the Democrat Party Supreme Council, Jero Wacik also resigned after he was named a suspect in the embezzlement of ministerial meeting funds. Besides these men, we have often heard of ministers whose loyalty to their parties does not end when loyalty to the nation begins.
In order to resolve this dilemma, Jokowi should return to his old conviction: no guarantees of DPR support for his government, no matter how many seats are given to the political parties. The allocation of 16 seats for the parties should not be the final word. If there are not enough candidates from the parties who meet the conditions, there is no need to insist on the full quota.
The criteria should be clearly stated: prospective ministers must have integrity and clean track records. To prevent conflicts of interest, any party managers selected for the cabinet must relinquish their party positions. A tough evaluation system is needed to ensure that ministers-both party officers and independents, can be dismissed from their cabinet positions as necessary, before their period in office is over.
Several opinion polls have shown that the people do not want the new government to compromise with political parties. Jokowi should not turn his back on the people simply because he wants to embrace the parties. (*)
