Indonesia’s Jokowi Warns of Reshuffle as Ministers Jostle for Lawmaker Posts

(Bloomberg) -- Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo threatened to remove ministers if they let the elections hinder their work.

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Jokowi, as the president is known, targeted his warning to ministers who are running for parliamentary seats in the 2024 polls, including Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo and Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah. These are crucial posts for his bid to ensure food sufficiency and improve labor productivity to transform the country into a high-income economy.

There are no rules banning ministers from seeking to become lawmakers. Still, Jokowi’s warning shows how the upcoming election is already dominating the government’s focus and narrowing the window for him to push through with ambitious plans like the $34 billion new capital city in East Kalimantan.

The agriculture minister post is key to ensuring enough supply of affordable groceries across the nation’s thousands of islands, with food costs likely to be a central issue in the elections. Meanwhile, the manpower minister role is vital in ensuring Jokowi’s Job Creation Law can turn investments into high-quality jobs, even as labor unions contend that the bill erodes workers’ protection.

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