Public Concerns Regarding Prabowo's Bulky Cabinet

President Prabowo Subianto appointed 136 officials to ministerial positions, deputy ministerial positions, heads of institutions/agencies, and special presidential envoys in the "Red and White Cabinet" on Monday, October 21, 2024.

According to a Kompas Research and Development (Litbang Kompas) survey, 41.5% of respondents believe that the large number of officials in the "Red and White Cabinet" will render the government ineffective.

Of this group, 32.5% are concerned that a "bloated cabinet" is prone to corruption.

"This concern is understandable due to the emergence of corruption cases involving several ministers in the last five years," said the Litbang Kompas team in their report on Saturday, October 26, 2024.

Furthermore, 29.3% believe that the large number of officials in the Prabowo era is related to the practice of distributing positions to his supporters during the presidential election.

"In fact, the formation of ministries should be based on the needs of government programs that ultimately benefit the public," said the Litbang Kompas team.

Then, 17% worry that a large number of ministers could increase the potential for conflicts of interest, and 14.7% are concerned about overlapping authorities.

Another 4.6% believe that a "bloated cabinet" has the potential to waste the budget, and 1.9% of respondents worry about other issues.

This Litbang Kompas survey involved 532 respondents in 38 Indonesian provinces, selected randomly and proportionally.

Data collection was conducted from September 23-25, 2024, through telephone interviews. The survey's margin of error is approximately 4.23%, with a 95% confidence level, under conditions of simple random sampling.