During his second term in office, President Jokowi’s cabinet line-up features five women occupying ministerial positions, indicating a smaller number from the earlier seven in his first cabinet.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar are among several ministers carrying through their posts from the first cabinet lineup to the second one.
Marsudi is the first woman to have filled the Foreign Ministry’s top position and her gleaming reputation was well-earned owing to her numerous achievements for Indonesia during her time in office, including the country’s appointment as non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and member of the UN Human Rights Council.
Finance genius Sri Mulyani was the World Bank managing director when she was summoned by President Jokowi back in 2014 to serve as finance minister, a position she had earlier filled during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s reign.
Several awards have been bestowed on Sri Mulyani as a woman expert in the field, including the Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year from Euromoney for her work in reforming Indonesia’s tax system and the World’s Best Minister in the World Government Summit in the United Arab Emirates.
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Siti Nurbaya Bakar aims to assist the president’s goals to boost investment without overlooking environmental conservation, as she seeks to accelerate Social Forestry programs currently being implemented. Bakar is an Aerospace Survey and Earth Science graduate from Enschede in the Netherlands and is carrying through to the second cabinet quite a bit of homework, including on land and forest fires.
After losing former ministers Susi Pudjiastuti, Puan Maharani, Nila Moeloek, Rini Soemarno, and Yohana Yembise, as well as Khofifah Indar Parawansa, who had resigned in 2018 after being elected as governor of East Java, Marsudi and Mulyani have gained three new women colleagues in the ”Indonesia Moving Forward” cabinet.
They are Minister of Women Empowerment and Children Protection I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati and Minister of Labor Ida Fauziyah.
Darmawati is known for her active involvement in sports, as she was provincial head of Bali’s Table Tennis Board from 2015-2019. Darmawati, wife to Jokowi’s ex-cooperatives and MSME minister Bintang Puspayoga, has also served as head of Business Management in National Crafts Board. She is replacing Yohana Yembise.
Ida Fauziyah was a National Awakening Party politician and takes on the reigns from Hanif Dhakiri as labor minister. She served as legislator in the House of Representatives for two decades, from 1999 to 2019. She is also known to have been active in women organizations, such as the Indonesian Women Islamic University Student Movement and the Women in Parliament organization.
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Reporter: Aria Cindyara
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
