REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, will most likely embrace the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the political party of Prabowo Subianto, his opponent in the presidential election on July 9, a researcher said.
"It is possible that the president will embrace members of Gerindra to ease the tensions from the presidential race," a senior researcher of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Siti Zuhro, stated here on Saturday (25/10).
She remarked that the term "absolute" did not exist in politics and that it was an art of managing possibilities to obtain power.
However, Zuhro pointed out that if Jokowi accepts Gerindra, the Red-White Coalition (KMP) that was established to act as a check and balancing power against the government would become ineffective.
The role of the KMP would become unclear and Indonesia would again be governed under the model of a joint political party coalition, which was seen during former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's term. This political model accommodates the interests of all political parties.
"It will eventually function like a coalition where ministers share their posts," she explained.
Jokowi has held communications with several party leaders who were once his political rivals, such as Prabowo Subianto and Aburizal Bakrie.
These talks reinforced expectations that Jokowi would select cadres from the Red-White coalition for his cabinet as well. That politicians from Gerindra will also be chosen has not been ruled out.
President Jokowi is expected to introduce his cabinet ministers at 4 p.m. on Sunday, according to the former deputy chairman of Jokowi's Transition Team, Andi Widjajanto.
"The cabinet members are likely to be introduced in a location between the Merdeka Palace and the State Palace at 4 p.m. on Sunday," Widjajanto affirmed at midnight on Friday.
He added that the inauguration of the cabinet members would likely be carried out at the State Palace at 11 a.m. on Monday, October 27.
President Jokowi will receive the leaders of the House of Representatives (DPR) to discuss its considerations on the change in nomenclatures of some ministries.
He had written to the DPR earlier, asking for their recommendations on the nomenclatures of ministries.
Widjajanto stated that the president was still assessing the results of the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) examination of the track records of his prospective ministers.
"The cabinet lineup will not be announced tonight. The president is still assessing and finalizing the lineup based on the results sent by the KPK," Widjajanto noted.
Earlier, Jokowi's Transition Team submitted 43 names of potential ministers to the KPK to check their credibility.
The KPK returned the results of its examinations to the president, marking the ministers either yellow or red due to the likelihood of their involvement in legal cases.
Based on the results from the KPK, President Jokowi will replace eight prospective ministers, which is the cause of the delay in the announcement of the cabinet lineup.
The announcement was earlier scheduled for Wednesday, October 22.
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