Both President Jokowi and Vice President Jusuf Kalla have called on the people of Indonesia to be patient several times, but they were eagerly awaiting the announcement on Wednesday.
President Jokowi has delayed announcing the names of his cabinet ministers as he needs more time to find replacements for the ministers who he initially wished to appoint but were marked red and yellow by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in their credibility checks.
A member of the Democratic Party, Ruhut Sitompul said here on Thursday that Jokowi should certainly adhere to the recommendations of the KPK to prove his commitment to preventing and eradicating corruption practices in the country.
"As part of his efforts to prevent and eradicate corruption, Jokowi must adhere to the KPKs recommendations before announcing his cabinet lineup," Sitompul remarked.
Referring to law number 39/2008 on state ministries, he further noted that President Jokowi had 14 days after his inauguration to announce the names of his cabinet ministers.
Reiterating the point, Vice President Jusuf Kalla stated that Jokowi did not need to rush because he had plenty of time to make the announcement.
Kalla also cautioned that the selection of the ministers should not be made in haste as they would be a part of the government for 5 years.
"We cannot afford to make mistakes during the selection (of ministers). They must be clean and credible," JK told reporters in his office on Thursday.
He affirmed that they were being careful in their decisions, in accordance with which they sent the names of potential ministers to the anti-graft body to verify their track records.
"The president would need the results of these background checks by the KPK to make his decision on the candidates," Kalla reiterated.
Earlier, President Jokowi Widodo sent the names of 43 candidates to the KPK, who then reverted with a number of them marked as potential suspects in corruption or other legal cases.
On Wednesday (October 22), a presidential spokesman told reporters that Jokowi would announce the names of his cabinet ministers that night.
The announcement was to be made at Jakartas Tanjung Priok port to emphasize on his vision of making the worlds largest archipelago a global maritime center.
Kalla, however, reaffirmed that the announcement would not be made on Thursday, but would possibly be made in the next couple of days at the State Palace, not in any other location.
He confirmed that some of the candidates were political party members but were professional, experienced and credible.
On Thursday, President Jokowi called a number of figures for another meeting at the State Palace, similar to the one he held on Wednesday.
He invited the former transitional team advisory board member Luhut Panjaitan, politicians Marwan Jafar, Hanif Dhakiri, and Nasir of the National Awakening Party, and Susi Air President Director Susi Pudjiastuti, among several others.
Following the meeting, the invitees refused to divulge any details regarding the cabinet lineup being arranged by the new head of state.
"(It was) nothing special. We only talked about the aviation, tourism and fisheries sectors," Pudjiastuti revealed.
In the meeting on Wednesday, the newly-installed president invited figures such as Pratikno, Komarudin Hidayat, former secretary general of the Ministry of Home Affairs Siti Nurbaya, and Deputy Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro.
Brodjonegoro, however, dismissed all speculations that the meeting was related to his ministerial candidacy.
"No, it was purely about the state budget," he informed the media after meeting President Jokowi.
Brodjonegoro emphasized that Jokowi only wanted to keep abreast of the current financial situation and to discuss the next state budget.
It is still unclear when President Jokowi will announce his cabinet lineup.
Moreover, the head of Research of Valbury Asia Securities, Alfiansyah, pointed out that market players were following all political developments ahead of the announcement of the cabinet lineup expected in a couple of days.
"Speculations will continue in the market till Joko Widodo makes the announcement," he affirmed.
Market players expect the government to immediately announce its policy on subsidized oil fuels (BBM).
Earlier, the government had indicated that it would raise the price of subsidized BBM next month.
On the international front, experts worry that at least 11 banks in Europe will not make it through the stress test, thus resulting in negative sentiments in the Asian market, including Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI).
"However, this is all still speculation as the result of the stress test would be known only by the end of this week," Alfiansyah said.
Regional markets such as Hang Seng and Nikkei recorded a decline in the index, but Straits reported an increase.
Furthermore, the value of the Indonesian national currency, rupiah, declined in inter-bank transactions, trading at the level of 12,018 per US dollar, weakening from its earlier level of 12,013 per US dollar.
An analyst of Samuel Sekuritas, Rangga Cipta stated that the weakening of the rupiah was a result of speculations surrounding the cabinet of the new president.
The declining trend could continue to follow the global trend, although improvements in Chinese economic data announced on Thursday were expected to prevent the value of rupiah from falling further against the US dollar.
In addition, the Chairman of the Peoples Power Front for Democracy, Gatot Ario Bimo, urged President Jokowi to be careful in selecting his cabinet ministers.
"The new president must be cautious with the figures he selects. He must listen to the recommendations of the KPK and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK)," Bimo remarked on Thursday.
When questioned about the cabinet lineup that President Jokowi will soon announce, Bimo said he did not want to see the government fail to meet the high expectations of Indonesians because of unprofessional ministers with bad track records.
Therefore, while selecting the cabinet members, President Jokowi needs to adopt the "right man for the right place" principle, besides keeping in mind the track records of the ministerial candidates.
Since his inauguration on Monday (October 20), President Joko Widodo has yet to announce the names of his cabinet ministers to the public.
Earlier, the head of state noted that the KPK and the PPATK had checked the track records of all potential ministerial candidates.
According to the KPK Chairman Abraham Samad, President Jokowi should not give a thought to appointing the ministerial candidates who were marked red and yellow by the anti-corruption body.
(T.O001/INE/KR-BSR/H-YH)
Reporter: Otniel Tamindael
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
