Jokowi, the Cabinet and the Coalition

KOMPAS/AGUIDO ADRI

Yunarto Wijaya

Jokowi is about to embark on his second term in office. While some may have expected a sense of relief after he secured a second and final term as the president, the political reality is very different.

The post-election complexity this time around is quite likely to be higher than in the past, as suggested by early indications in the process of forming the next Cabinet. A public discourse has emerged on the inclusion of Prabowo-Sandi supporters in the Cabinet. The experience of the 2004-2014 presidential election showed that changing allegiances is nothing new for political parties in Indonesia. The Golkar Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), for example, switched sides to be part of the United I Cabinet of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) in 2004. In 2009 and 2014, Golkar did the same thing, even though in the 2014 election it was done in the middle of the period (along with PAN).