Widodo (right) shakes hands with Prabowo Subianto, after Jokowi was sworn in for a second term as president at the Parliament building in Jakarta. — AFP photo
JAKARTA: Indonesian opposition leader Prabowo Subianto said yesterday he had been asked by President Joko Widodo to join the cabinet to help in the area of defence, and the former general said he had accepted the invitation.
“Today we were formally asked and we are able to help,” Prabowo, who was Widodo’s challenger in April’s bitterly fought election, told reporters after meeting Widodo at the presidential palace.
He did not confirm his position in the cabinet, but media reports have suggested Prabowo would serve as the defence minister.
Widodo said after meeting Prabowo at the palace earlier this month, they had discussed the possibility of Prabowo’s party Gerindra joining the government coalition.
He said yesterday he wanted ‘innovative’ ministers in his cabinet for a second term, as the co-founder of tech startup Gojek said he would join and a former chairman of Inter Milan soccer club was tipped for a post.
The make-up of the cabinet is being closely watched to see how many are technocrats, who are more likely to fall in with Widodo’s reform agenda. Party affiliated candidates are seen more at risk of falling back on traditional loyalties.
Widodo had been expected to announce his line-up yesterday but this was likely to be delayed until tomorrow, according to Mahfud MD, a former head of the Constitutional Court, who said he was interviewed for a post at the palace yesterday.
“I want appointed ministers to be figures who are innovative, productive, as well as be hard and fast workers. Figures who are not stuck in monotonous routines,” Widodo said in a Twitter message.
There has been no official announcement but Mahfud told Kompas TV at the presidential palace: “On Wednesday, we are all invited to be announced to all of you, we were called one by one today.”
He said a swearing in was scheduled at 9am(0200 GMT) tomorrow.
Mahfud, who was at one stage expected to be the vice presidential running mate of Widodo, has been linked in media to the post of law and human rights minister.
All of the candidates said the president had asked them to join the cabinet, but they declined to confirm the positions offered.
Nadiem Makarim, 35, the chief executive of Indonesian ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek, was another visitor at the palace.
“I have received a big honour to be able to join the cabinet of the president,” Makarim told reporters.
Widodo has been besieged by ‘extremely intense’ jockeying for posts as he sought to build a cabinet of technocrat ministers, a presidential advisor has said, declining to be named.
Ryan Kiryanto, an economist at Bank Negara Indonesia, said he was not concerned about any impact on the markets or economy of a delay in announcing the cabinet, instead seeing it as ‘reflecting carefulness’ by the president in his selections. — Reuters