JAKARTA, Indonesia: Newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto announced Indonesia’s largest-ever Cabinet late Sunday, with 109 members representing his pledge for a strong government.
He named his Cabinet of ministers, vice ministers and head of national agencies the “Red and White Cabinet,” referring to the colors of Indonesia’s flag.
Subianto became the eighth president of Southeast Asia’s largest economy on Sunday.
The Cabinet of Subianto’s predecessor, Joko Widodo, had 34 ministers and head of government agencies.
Subianto has said earlier that he needs a strong administration, even though analysts said that his “fat” Cabinet would bloat the bureaucracy.
“I want to create a strong government that would unite our multicultural society and diverse political interests,” Subianto said before inviting more than 100 people for interviews at his residence last week. “It must be a big coalition, and some will say my Cabinet is fat.”
The Cabinet features politicians from a coalition of seven parties who supported his victory in the February election, and figures allied with Widodo’s Cabinet, who were reappointed to continue their jobs under Subianto’s presidency. Analysts said the move was a political reward to Widodo for the latter’s tacit support in the election.
Subianto was sworn in with his new vice president, 37-year-old Surakarta ex-Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka. He chose Raka, who is Widodo’s son, as his running mate, with Widodo favoring Subianto over the candidate of his own former party. The former rivals became tacit allies, even though Indonesian presidents don’t typically endorse candidates.
Subianto was a longtime rival of the Widodo, who ran against him for the presidency twice and refused to accept his defeat on both occasions, in 2014 and 2019.
But Widodo appointed Subianto as defense chief after his reelection, paving the way for an alliance despite their rival political parties. During the campaign, Subianto ran as the popular outgoing president’s heir, vowing to continue signature policies like the construction of a multibillion-dollar new capital city and limits on exporting raw materials intended to boost domestic industry.
Backed by Widodo, Subianto swept to a landslide victory in February’s direct presidential election on promises of policy continuity.
Subianto reappointed nearly half of Widodo’s Cabinet members, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, making her the first person to hold the ministry under three different presidents.
Indrawati, 62, who has served as the executive director of the International Monetary Fund and managing director of the World Bank, is one of Indonesia’s longest-serving finance ministers, having held the post for long stretches under Presidents Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo.
She has earned considerable respect in international circles, particularly for her reforms of the chaotic Indonesian taxation system and her role in steering Indonesia through the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We regularly consulted with each other to discuss strategies for strengthening the Finance Ministry and the state finances to support his programs,” Indrawati told reporters after meeting with Subianto last week.
Other ministers from Widodo’s Cabinet include Interior Minister Tito Karnavian, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir.
Subianto has announced an ambitious goal of increasing annual economic growth to 8 percent by the end of his five-year term, and embarking on an ambitious spending program, including an increase in defense spending, hikes in civil servants’ salaries, and a program to give 83 million children free meals.
New President Subianto announces Indonesia’s largest-ever Cabinet, with 109 members
https://arab.news/ctz4t
New President Subianto announces Indonesia’s largest-ever Cabinet, with 109 members
- Subianto has said earlier that he needs a strong administration, even though analysts said that his “fat” Cabinet would bloat the bureaucracy
- Subianto has announced an ambitious goal of increasing annual economic growth to 8 percent by the end of his five-year term
Tanzania opposition says 2,000 killed in election violence
- Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche said Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week“
- The violence was carried out “with direct involvement of the state“
DAR ES SALAM: Tanzania’s main opposition party on Thursday said more than 2,000 people were killed in a week of election violence, calling for sanctions against officials it accused of crimes against humanity.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of October 29 polls with 98 percent of the vote, but her government was accused of rigging the polls and overseeing a campaign of murders and abductions of her critics that sparked nationwide protests and riots.
Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche told reporters that Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week.”
He said the violence was carried out “with direct involvement of the state” and that it amounted to “crimes against humanity.”
Previous opposition counts had put the deaths at more than 1,000. The government has not given a death toll.
Heche urged the international community to “impose sanctions on all individuals involved in planning and executing these acts of criminality and crimes against humanity.”
In a live online broadcast, he said those responsible should be subjected to travel bans, including restrictions on their families.
Heche also said the unrest triggered a surge of people fleeing the country, alongside “the abduction and enforced disappearance of hundreds of civilians.”
Chadema further accused security units of carrying out rapes, torture and “gruesome killings,” and of engaging in widespread looting and arbitrary arrests.
The party urged authorities to return the bodies of those killed so families could bury them.
Authorities have continued to stifle dissent, with planned protests earlier this week seeing empty streets and a significant security presence.
Hassan last week justified the killings, saying it was necessary to prevent the overthrow of the government.
“The force that was used corresponds to the situation at hand,” she said in a speech.
Hassan has formed an inquiry commission into the violence, which the opposition says includes only government loyalists, instead calling for an independent investigation.
