By: Rahmat Kartolo) *
President Jokowi and KH. Ma’ruf Amin is committed to realizing an advanced Indonesia. The effort is not an easy task considering that Indonesia is experiencing a number of global challenges. To realize this vision and determination, Jokowi-Maruf is assisted by outstanding people as ministers in his cabinet.
President-elect Joko Widodo along with Vice-President Ma’ruf Amin, fulfilled his promise to form a cabinet that came from professionals. Of the 38 members of the Advanced Indonesian Cabinet who were appointed in October, 58 percent or 22 of the elected ministers were professionals and 42 percent or 16 were from political parties.
The composition did not dispute too far from the promise made by Jokowi last August, or 2 months before he was appointed. At that time President Jokowi promised to fill his cabinet with a composition of 45 percent from political parties and 55 percent from professionals. In the education sector, Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim showed confidence. A smile that always expands broadly, the look in his eyes shows a sense of optimism going forward.
Although previously he was a former CEO of Gojek, but the attitude Nadiem aimed at early in the leadership did not mean that he had no preparation, he claimed he only needed time. Of course there are specific reasons why President Jokowi entrusted the position of minister of education in the hands of the young man. As head of state, Jokowi believes that Nadiem’s ability in the field of technology can facilitate a variety of impossible things. So that it can realize the president’s vision and mission in the field of education.
Besides that, Jokowi admitted that Nadiem had told me a lot about what would be done to create quality human resources. Therefore, Nadiem received the mandate to fill the Minister of Education and Culture post. In addition to a new face, there is also an old face that returns to fill the ministry position, it also succeeded in stealing the world’s attention, one of which was Sri Mulyani, where she was re-elected as finance minister in the cabinet of the Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin administration in the 2019-2024 period.
One of the BNN Bloomberg media, wrote the news that the best Asian finance minister in 2006 was re-elected as finance minister in the Indonesian Cabinet Work Volume II. The reason he accepted his position as Minister of Finance was that he wanted to contribute significantly to Indonesia’s progress. We certainly understand that the wishes of President Jokowi and Vice President Ma’ruf Amin are to want Indonesia to be advanced, high-income, and dignified as manifested in the Indonesian Vision 2045. In order to be able to go in that direction, state financial instruments through the State Budget (APBN) and State wealth certainly plays a very important role.
In line with President Jokowi’s vision, Sri Mulyanin wants the entire line of the finance ministries to continue to think and look for alternative policies so that the momentum of development remains strengthened, so that the cycle of weakening the global economy does not have too much impact at home. Meanwhile, in the position of the Minister of the Interior, there was the figure of Tito Karnavian, who after retiring from his position as National Police Chief, Jokowi chose him to serve as Minister of Home Affairs.
Tito’s election was certainly not without reason, Jokowi had appointed Tito because of his experience and good relations with the regional head. With this capital, President Jokowi hopes that Tito can coordinate well with all regional heads to oversee job creation and investment growth in each region. The way to do this is by ensuring that each regional head can create public services and business governance that is friendly and fast.
Meanwhile, there is something quite interesting in the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet, where the Minister of Religion is elected from a military background, namely Fachrul Razi. Of course many did not think beforehand that the ministries in charge of religion in Indonesia were led by civilians both public figures, political parties and professionals. Like Abdul Malik Fajar, Quraish Shihab, Suryadarma Ali, Lukman Hakim and others.
The military retired received a mandate from Jokowi to overcome the issue of radicalism which is indeed the concern of the government and requires a creative approach to overcoming it. Although he served as Minister of Religion, but because he came from among political parties. He prefers to represent among professionals in the cabinet. The ministerial post has been filled by people who are considered capable of realizing what is the vision of Indonesia Going forward in the Indonesia Forward cabinet, this election is certainly a great hope for all of us so that the Government Priority Program gets support from all elements in its government.
) * The author is a social political observer
