JakartaPost-Sept 26, 2025
President Prabowo Subianto ’s decision to remove two officials affiliated with Megawati Soekarnoputri, the matriarch of the sole de facto opposition the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), from his administration in the latest reshuffle has raised questions about the future of relations between the two politicians. In what observers saw as an attempt to consolidate power, Prabowo shuffled his cabinet twice this month and removed some ministers and high-ranking officials, including coordinating politics and security minister Budi Gunawan and National Public Procurement Agency (LKPP) head Hendrar Prihadi. Budi, a close confidante of Megawati, lost his position in the cabinet over his alleged failure to control the late-August deadly unrest fueled by economic inequality that became the largest crisis Prabowo faced since taking office nearly a year ago. Hendrar, meanwhile, is a prominent PDI-P member who had led the procurement agency since 2022 during the second term of the administration of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s, when Jokowi was still a PDI-P member. The dismissal of two officials affiliated with the PDI-P from the cabinet has sparked renewed questions about the current state of relations between Megawati and the President and the possible shift of PDI-P’s stance towards his administration. However, the party has remained reluctant, largely due to the prominent roles of its member-turned-nemesis Jokowi and his son, Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, in the Prabowo administration. Over the past few months, ties between Prabowo and Megawati have strengthened, underscored by his decision to grant a pardon to PDI-P secretary-general convicted of bribery in August, shortly before she announced her party would soften its stance toward the government even though it remains outside of the ruling coalition. Read more at:
