JakartaPost-Sept 12, 2024
President-elect Prabowo Subianto has been steadily consolidating power ahead of his inauguration as the country’s next president, as the list of loyalists and political allies taking on key posts in the cabinet and state agencies grows months before he takes office. Since his landslide victory in the February presidential election, Prabowo has been working to secure support in both the government and the House of Representatives to help him quickly execute his legislative agenda when his term starts on Oct. 20. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who tacitly endorsed Prabowo in the election, has been helping to smooth the way for his successor with a series of cabinet reshuffles that saw members of Prabowo’s Gerindra Party and his inner circle get key positions in the government. One example is Prabowo’s nephew Thomas Djiwandono, who was appointed a deputy finance minister in July. An ally of both Jokowi and Prabowo, Bahlil Lahadalia, who previously served as the investment minister, was appointed to the energy and mineral resources ministerial post on Aug. 19. Jokowi also named Dadan Hindayana, a professor at Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), to lead the newly created National Nutrition Agency. The institution’s main task is to oversee Prabowo’s signature free nutritious meals program, which is projected to cost the state around Rp 71 trillion (US$4.56 billion) in its first year. On Wednesday, Jokowi appointed Saifullah Yusuf, secretary-general of Indonesia’s largest Islamic group Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), as social affairs minister. NU has supported Jokowi throughout his 10-year presidency, including by wooing members to vote for Prabowo in the February election. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/09/12/prabowo-consolidates-power-as-presidency-looms.html.
