Fika Nurul Ulya, Danu Damarjati, Jakarta – President Prabowo Subianto carried out a cabinet reshuffle last week on Thursday October 1 in which officials from the President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo era were seen being shifted rather than completely removed from the circle of power.
This reshuffle marks the seventh time since Prabowo assumed the presidency in October 2024, and involved replacing several figures considered to be "close associates" of the 7th President Joko Widodo.
One of them was Pratikno, the former State Secretary (Mensesneg) in the Jokowi era, who was replaced as the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs (Menko PMK).
Pratikno was succeeded by Sugiono and subsequently appointed as the head of the Presidential Advisory Council (Wantimpres).
Likewise with National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo. The position of National Police Chief was taken over by the former Head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Suyudi Ario Seto, after President Prabowo submitted the Presidential Letter (Surpres) to the House of Representatives (DPR) on September 30.
Shifted, not ousted
Political analyst and Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) national board member Jojo Rohi, believes that through this reshuffle Prabowo has begun to shape a government configuration that better reflects his own power structure.
He sees an interesting pattern in the reshuffle: individuals known as "Jokowi's people" have not been expelled from the orbit of power. They have simply shifted away from positions holding direct authority.
Pratikno for example now serves as the head of the Wantimpres, while Listyo Sigit has become the Head of Presidential Staff (KSP).
Here, there is a distinction between "removing" someone and "reducing" or altering their power base.
"Those considered 'Jokowi's people' are not being removed from the orbit of power, but are being shifted from positions of direct authority to roles where influence relies more heavily on access to the President", Rohi told Kompas.com on Friday October 2.
He then compared the influence associated with their previous roles versus the positions currently held by people like Listyo Sigit.
The National Police Chief, he said holds immense institutional authority and commands a direct chain of command.
While serving as Head of Presidential Staff, he will remains very close to the President. However, the nature of that power changes.
As KSP, his influence will depend far more on the President's mandate and trust.
"So, it is not just the title that changes, but the source of power, from institutional power to presidentially delegated power. This is more or less the same with Pratikno", said Rohi.
Therefore, he believes that Prabowo appears to be shaping a government configuration that better reflects his own power structure, while simultaneously retaining certain figures who share a historical connection to the Jokowi administration.
"In this way, Prabowo avoids drawing a hard line between 'Prabowo's people' and 'Jokowi's people'. So I'm convinced there are two processes running simultaneously, namely the redistribution of power and the maintenance of the coalition", he said.
Rebalancing power
Rohi is of the view that a reshuffle is essentially a natural move when a head of state wishes to ensure that strategic centres of power remain firmly in their hands as they enter the second half of their term.
Therefore Rohi characterises the reshuffle this time round not as a total de-Jokowisation". He views Prabowo's actions more as a rebalancing of power.
"Meaning, Prabowo is expanding his control over the government's configuration without severing political ties with Jokowi and his network", he explained.
The decision to assign positions to Listyo Sigit and Pratikno allows Prabowo to consolidate power without creating the impression of a rupture or an open break with Jokowi.
"In a political coalition like now, maintaining people within the system is often just as important as preventing potential defections", asserted Rohi.
Maintaining political balance
Echoing this sentiment, political analyst Usep S. Ahyar from the Populi Centre is of the view that the cabinet reshuffle cannot be viewed merely as a refreshment.
The reshuffle represents an effort by Prabowo to maintain political balance while simultaneously strengthening his control over the government.
"I think, this is dominated by political balance", Ahyar said when contacted by Kompas.com.
According to Shayar, Prabowo is finalising the transition from an administration that retained many figures from the Widodo era to a government that increasingly reflects his own political character.
This is apparent in Prabowo's decision to remove Pratikno from the post of Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs despite Pratikno having held a strategic position as Minister of State Secretary during the Jokowi administration.
"Pratikno is an institutional memory of one decade of the Jokowi administration. Letting him go would mean severing the most significant symbolic link to the previous regime", said Ahyar.
He continued saying that Prabowo's transition efforts are not to remove all old figures, but rather shifting them to new positions.
Because, with this method, the officials remain within the administration, but their positions and the continuity of their political careers are increasingly dependent on Prabowo.
"The message to the elite is, your seat is secure as long as your loyalty requires no interpretation", said Ahyar.
Loyalty, not competence
Furthermore, he noted that if the reshuffle were based on the performance of ministers and officials, one would expect the entry of many technocrats as new figures.
Meanwhile in this reshuffle, Prabowo instead shifted several figures already within the inner circle of power to new positions, including Dudung from the KSP to Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs (Menko Polkam) and Sugiono from Foreign Minister to Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs.
"Rotating the same people into different seats reflects the logic of loyalty, not competence. Repeated reshuffles in less than two years also indicate that the cabinet is being evaluated without performance indicators ever having been disclosed to the public", he asserted.
The reshuffle on Thursday represents the largest if compared to the six previous cabinet shake-ups. In earlier reshuffles, Prabowo only shifted a few officials on a small scale.
In the first reshuffle on February 19, 2025 for example, Prabowo only changed the Minister of Education, Science, and Technology, replacing Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro with Brian Yuliarto.
The second reshuffle took place on September 8, 2025, shortly after riots occurred in several cities in August 2026.
At that time, Prabowo removed and replaced several ministers in strategic roles, including Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Budi Gunawan, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Cooperatives Budi Arie Setiadi, Minister for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers Abdul Kadir Karding and Minister of Youth and Sports Adito Ariotedjo.
A few days later on September 17, 2025, Prabowo conducted another reshuffle to fill previously vacant positions including Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs and Minister of Youth and Sports, as well as appointing new heads for the Government Communication Agency (Bakom) and the KSP.
In the fourth reshuffle on October 8, 2025, Prabowo appointed Akhmad Wiyagus as Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and Benyamin Paulus Octavianus as Deputy Minister of Health.
Deputy Finance Minister Anggito Abimanyu was also shifted to a new role and became head of the Board of Commissioners of the Indonesia Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS).
Meanwhile, a fifth reshuffle took place on April 27, 2026, involved six positions, including the Minister of Environment, the heads of Bakom and the KSP.
The sixth reshuffle occurred on September 17, 2026, when Prabowo removed Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa and replaced him with Suahasil Nazara, who had served as Deputy Minister of Finance since the Jokowi era.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Mengamati Reshuffle Kabinet yang Tak Singkirkan "Orang-orang Jokowi"".]
