The three new deputy ministers are John Wempi Wetipo as Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Afriansyah Noor as Deputy Minister of Manpower, and Raja Juli Antoni as Deputy Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Deputy Head of the National Land Agency.
Presidential Decision No. 24M of 2022 on the termination and inauguration of deputy ministers of the Onward Indonesia Cabinet in the 2019-2024 period, which was read out by Ministry of State Secretariat official Nanik Purwanti, is the legal basis for the inauguration of the deputy ministers.
Wetipo was reassigned from his earlier position of Deputy Minister of Public Works and Public Housing that he served from 2019. He was the district head of Jayawijaya, Papua, from 2008 to 2018.
Meanwhile, Noor is the current secretary general of the Crescent Star Party (PBB).
Antoni is the current secretary of the Indonesian Solidarity Party's (PSI's) supervisory council and is replacing Surya Tjandra, also from PSI.
Earlier, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung stated that President Jokowi had decided to reshuffle the cabinet following thorough consideration.
"It is not a sudden step. After quite mature thoughts and long discussions, the president indeed needs some sort of reshuffling of several ministers and deputy ministers. Why is it carried out now? It is because the momentum is calculated to be the most appropriate at this time," Anung stated on Wednesday.
Anung expressed hope that the presence of new ministers and deputy ministers would strengthen the existing cabinet and make the cabinet work in a more agile manner, particularly to address the issues of food and inflation that had currently become a global problem.
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Translator: Rangga Pandu AJ, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Suharto
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