JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto’s decision to remove two officials affiliated with Megawati Soekarnoputri, the matriarch of the sole de facto opposition the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), from his administration in the latest reshuffle has raised questions about the future of relations between the two politicians.
In what observers saw as an attempt to consolidate power, Prabowo shuffled his Cabinet twice this month and removed some ministers and high-ranking officials, including coordinating politics and security minister Budi Gunawan and National Public Procurement Agency (LKPP) head Hendrar Prihadi.
Budi, a close confidante of Megawati, lost his position in the cabinet over his alleged failure to control the late-August deadly unrest fueled by economic inequality that became the largest crisis Prabowo faced since taking office nearly a year ago.
Hendrar, meanwhile, is a prominent PDI-P member who had led the procurement agency since 2022 during the second term of the administration of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s, when Jokowi was still a PDI-P member.
Hendrar has held numerous strategic roles in PDI-P’s regional structure.
He currently leads its Semarang office in the party’s traditional stronghold of Central Java.
Last year, Hendrar ran for Central Java deputy governor alongside PDI-P’s governor candidate but lost to the candidate pair that was backed by pro-Prabowo political parties and endorsed by Jokowi, who at the time had already parted ways with the PDI-P.
The Cabinet shake-ups came after Megawati’s surprise appearance at the Merdeka Palace on Aug 30, when she stood alongside leaders of pro-government parties in a show of support as Prabowo announced steps to address demands from protesters, including the cancellations of controversial perks of lawmakers.
The dismissal of two officials affiliated with the PDI-P from the Cabinet has sparked renewed questions about the current state of relations between Megawati and the President and the possible shift of PDI-P’s stance towards his administration.
Since his election victory last year, Prabowo has sought to bring PDI-P, the largest party in the House of Representatives, into the government.
However, the party has remained reluctant, largely due to the prominent roles of its member-turned-nemesis Jokowi and his son, Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, in the Prabowo administration.
Over the past few months, ties between Prabowo and Megawati have strengthened, underscored by his decision to grant a pardon to PDI-P secretary-general convicted of bribery in August, shortly before she announced her party would soften its stance toward the government even though it remains outside of the ruling coalition.
But so do the ties between the President and his predecessor Jokowi, who helped him win the election.
This is indicated by Prabowo’s recent signing of a regulation to move the seat of the government by 2028 from Jakarta to Nusantara, his strongest signal yet of commitment to the legacy project of Jokowi amid fiscal constraints that could push the project to the wayside.
Political analyst Lili Romli from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said the removal of two PDI-P-affiliated figures is unlikely to harm the personal rapport between Prabowo and Megawati, highlighting the fact that PDI-P is not part of the ruling coalition.
“The personal relationship between Megawati and Prabowo should remain cordial and free from tension. Megawati is likely to understand that the reshuffle was motivated by coalition dynamics rather than personal or political animosity,” Lili said on Wednesday (Sept 24).
It is, however, likely to prompt a change in the way PDI-P positions itself toward the Prabowo administration, with the party expected to adopt a more critical stance on government policies and decisions.
“PDI-P may become more outspoken and scrutinise government policies more closely,” Lili said.
“And when the PDI-P becomes more critical, it remains to be seen whether the cordial relationship between Prabowo and Megawati will continue.”
Speculations have been rife that Prabowo decided to remove PDI-P affiliated figures only after he received information that the opposition party might have played a part in the deadly unrest.
State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi last Friday denied that Prabowo had received such information, and that it had motivated the President to remove Budi and Hendrar.
PDI-P spokesperson Mohamad Guntur Romli dismissed the allegations that the party was involved in the late-August riots as “baseless” and “misleading”.
He accused unnamed groups of attempting to frame PDI-P as a scapegoat for the unrest. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
