JakartaPost-Sept 11
President Prabowo Subianto has appointed Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin as the acting coordinating politics and security minister following the removal of Budi Gunawan, an appointment analysts say signals Prabowo’s growing reliance on military figures and loyalists in security affairs. Sjafrie’s appointment came after the dismissal of Budi, a retired police general and former intelligence chief, from the post earlier that day in the first major cabinet reshuffle that followed a wave of protests and deadly unrest driven by public grievances over economic hardships. The interim appointment marked the return of a military figure to the most senior ministership in the security portfolio, which is responsible for overseeing interagency coordination between the Indonesian Military (TNI), the Defense Ministry, the National Police and the Home Ministry, among others. A retired Army general, Sjafrie is Prabowo’s long-time friend who graduated from the Military Academy in the same 1974 class and later served alongside him in the elite Special Forces (Kopassus), including during operations in East Timor. In addition to the defense minister post, Sjafrie has been entrusted with multiple other portfolios in the current administration, including the head of the National Defense Council and the head of the advisory board of the task force for curbing illegal plantations and mines in forest areas. Political analyst Agung Baskoro from Trias Politika Strategis saw Sjafrie’s appointment as a signal of Prabowo’s possible reorientation toward a military-centered security approach, which would mark a departure from the current police-oriented leadership style in dealing with internal security threats.
Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2025/09/11/sjafries-new-post-shows-prabowos-reliance-on-military-figures.html.
