10 Ministers Involved in Presidential Campaign Teams

Jakarta (Antara) - Ten ministers in the Indonesian cabinet are slated to be members of the success teams for the two pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates to contest in the upcoming election on July 9. In view of that, Abdullah Dahlan, the coordinator of the Political Corruption Division of the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) noted here on Friday that extra monitoring must be carried out with regard to campaign implementation. "The condition must be closely monitored with regard to preventing possible hindrance to the democratic process of the election," he stated in a release issued jointly by ICW, IBC, and IPC at the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) office. Prabowo Subianto will compete against Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in the election. Prabowo, who is a former military figure, has chosen former chief economic minister Hatta Rajasa as his running mate while Jokowi, who is currently the governor of Jakarta, pairs with former vice president Jusuf Kalla. Dahlan remarked that the cabinet ministers, as campaign team members for the election participants, can potentially use resources in their concerned ministries to support their candidates to ensure a victory. Meanwhile, Roy Salam, the coordinator of the Indonesia Budget Center, stated that five of the ministers managed a total social aid budget of up to Rp5.4 trillion. In view of that, he said that Bawaslu must take extra monitoring efforts to prevent them from possibly misusing their powers, especially with regard to social aid funds. Bawaslu member Nasrullah expressed appreciation that such a warning was issued and will take maximal efforts to monitor the implementation of the election. "Bawaslu feels the need to support the efforts to monitor regional heads from provincial governors to district heads and city mayors with regard to the use of state facilities," he added. He stated that the state and regional officials affiliated to the campaign teams of the two pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates must be closely monitored to prevent possible mobilization of their staff and the use of state facilities. The members of the success teams of the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa presidential ticket are Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Syarif Cicip Sutardjo, Industry Minister MS Hidayat, Minister for Administrative Reform Azwar Abubakar, Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Aljufri, and Public Housing Affairs Minister Djan Faridz. Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, Minister for Backward Regions Helmi Faizal Zaini, and State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan are the members of the success team of the Jokowi-JK pair. (*) Reporting by Fransiska Niditya