After the Cabinet Reshuffle

Last Tuesday evening, President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) finally announced the names of his new cabinet.

Around one third of the 34 Ministers were changed, and the number of Vice Ministers were added from 10 into 19.  Beside that, Leut Gen. Maciano Norman has been named as the new Chief of the State Intelligence Agency. Please find attached the details for your perusal.

The reshuffle effected three major members of the coalition government. President SBY's Democrat Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) each of them lost one Minister replaced by professionals.
The Golkar Party did not lost any of its Ministers but its Deputy Chairman Fadel Muhammad was replaced by another Deputy Chairman of the party i.e. Syarif Cicip as Minister of Maritime and Fishery.

However, two other members of the coalition i.e. Muhaimin Iskandar, Chairman of the National Awakening Party as Manpower Minister, and Suryadarma Ali, Chairman of the United Development Party, will still hold their positions.

Due to the lost of its Minister, PKS plan to conduct an internal meeting to decide whether or not it will remain in the coalition. Earlier, some officials of PKS have vowed that the party will leave if any of its Ministers is fired.

Meanwhile Golkar Party accepted the President's decision, although Fadel Muhammad seemed to be disappointed because he has never been given any reason for the firing.

In my opinion, the reshuffle would make the Cabinet more " fatter ", causing heavier bureaucracy and burden the state budget. However, it would be better to give the Ministers and Vice Ministers some time, at least 12 months,  before we make any judgement about their performance. 


 

Higher Salary for the New Ministers

The new Cabinet Ministers are very lucky compared to ordinary citizens!

That's what I thought when I heard that the ministers, just inducted on 22 October, will get higher salary than their predecessors.

They are very lucky because the global economic & financial crisis has caused many business to stop their operations therefore making many people lost their jobs thus unable to provide financial support for their families. Large number of unemployed people has caused increased in crime rates

Further, those Ministers are also very lucky compared to the victims of the frequent natural disasters that have often struck our country recently.

For details, please click here, here, here and here.

Considering the above and the fact that those ministers will also get free housings, luxurious cars, first class traveling facilities, and many other benefits for very important persons, I wonder whether it is now the right time to increase their salary.

Photo: Courtesy of Kompas.

The New Cabinet

Last night, President Susilo Bambang Yudono (SBY), who was inaugurated with Vice President Boediono on Tuesday 20 October, announced his Cabinet Ministers for the next five years.

The Cabinet consists of 3 coordinating minister and 31 ministers, most of them are new comers in the cabinet, including Coordinating Minister of Politics, Laws & Security Air Marshall (Ret.) Djoko Suyanto, Minister of Foreign Affairs Marty Natalagawa, Minister of Home Affairs Gamawan Fauzi and Minister of Communication & Information Tifatul Sembiring.

While old faces who are still holding their previous cabinet portofio includes Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu, and Minister of Culture & Tourism Jero Wacik.

Beside the minsters, President SBY also annouced three chiefs of state agencies including Chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) former National Police General (Ret.) Chief Sutanto.

For detailed information on the new cabinet minsters, please click here.

In this regards, I would like to congratulate President SBY for his re-election, Vice President Boediono for his new position, and all the cabinet ministers for their new roles & responsibilities. I sincerely hope that each and every one of them would focus their thoughts, voices and actions merely for the very best interest of the people of Indonesia. Therefore they would leave behind whatever their political backgrounds