Look in the mirror at the Hatta Cabinet

Look in the mirror at the Hatta Cabinet

BEFORE his inauguration as president, SBY was faced with two choices, arranging his cabinet based on professionals or party people. The phenomenon of the past few weeks shows that each of SBY's coalition partner parties has begun to calculate to offer their elite cadres. Political parties have based their actions on the understanding that ministers are political positions, not careers.
Measuring candidate cabinet members from political parties is nothing but a consequence of the dynamics of SBY's relations with its coalition partner parties experiencing ups and downs. Especially when the PDI-P chose to approach SBY's camp rather than be gray opposition in parliament.
Micro-Macro Rations
The actual action of the coalition partner parties to block the flow of the PDIP approach to SBY was to accelerate the submission of the name of the best cadre to SBY. On the other hand, SBY's attitude was flat when he stated that his cabinet would not be polarized in political interests, but rather a cabinet that worked professionally.
SBY's cold attitude was then discouraged academically as the desire of the president who wanted to model his cabinet going forward as a bifukrasi cabinet. A cabinet arrangement which assumes that ministers in the real sector are always given to political cronies and business cronies of the elected president.
The Cabinet continues to promote a combination of professionals and political parties while maintaining a commitment to political stability. Professionals are placed at the macro post quota, such as Bappenas, Coordinating Minister for the Economy, the minister of finance, the minister of mining and energy, and the minister of trade. Political parties are still the same as in previous years, which are positioned on the micro post quota, such as the minister of agriculture, the minister of industry, the minister of labor and transmigration, and the minister of BUMN.
That measure was what was read last week by political parties to quickly deposit their cadres to SBY. For nominees for cabinet members in professional circles, SBY still considers many factors, including the hardest commitment is loyalty to SBY-Boediono's political economy program for the next five years. SBY seems to be fully aware that the coalition that established himself as president is liquid. The consequences can at any time lead to the disloyalty of the coalition partner political parties, especially if SBY and his cabinet experience critical periods of leadership.
It seems that SBY's choice to strengthen the professional side of his cabinet or known as the zaken cabinet, especially in the economic sphere, is a necessity when our country has to deal with global economic flows whose direction is increasingly uncertain. Like a nut that strengthens the framework of building the national economy, the economics technocrats in the cabinet can later become SBY's accomplices in responding to domestic and global economic problems.
"Razor Cabinet"
Presumably, the zaken cabinet composition that Bung Hatta had built was more or less a mirror for SBY. In his capacity as a partyless prime minister, Bung Hatta at that time viewed that the cabinet zaken which he built was the best solution in dealing with the party's opportunism that was too excessive, especially when overcoming the attack on the left wing party at that time, namely the PKI and the Socialist Party.
That was what Hatta refused when building his cabinet. Hatta prefers an expert minister who understands the intricacies of the ministry he leads. There were 17 state ministry positions in the Hatta era, filled with people who were not partyed but had expertise, extensive knowledge, as well as strong national insights, such as the Juanda figure, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, or Muh. Yamin
Some party functionaries who appeared in the cabinet were actually carried by Hatta with individual capacity, not party delegates. For example, the Minister of Youth Affairs Supeno and the Minister of Labor Kusnan. Hatta continued to give portions of his cabinet to professional people. The rest is a balance between coalition parties and opposition parties.
Despite getting tacky and intimidating efforts from the left wing party, in his journey Hatta and all his cabinet members were able to carry out the performance professionally. The national newspaper at that time responded positively to the composition of the Hatta cabinet and dubbed it the "razor cabinet" because it succeeded in clearing the cabinet of the opportunism of party people and placed the cabinet in a position of professionalism.
Many observers said that if Hatta's vision to put the principle of professionalism in the cabinet continued and Bung Karno was not hurried to silence those who were deemed incompatible with him, maybe a civilian democratic government could be inherited until now without including polemic or conflict. Only, Hatta prefer the honorable way.