USINDO Open Forum: "Assessing President Jokowi's New Cabinet" with Mr. Paul Rowland: Tuesday August 16
USINDO cordially invites you to an Open Forum on
Assessing President Jokowi’s New Cabinet:
Implications for Economic Reform and Governance
with
Mr. Paul Rowland
Independent Consultant
Advisor, Reformasi Weekly Review
and
Former Resident Representative,
National Democratic Institute / Indonesia
Moderated by:
USINDO Advisor Ms. Barbara Harvey
Tuesday, August 16
2:30 – 4:00 p.m.
USINDO Office
1625 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Suite 550
Washington, D.C. 20036
On July 27, President Jokowi announced his thoroughly revamped new cabinet, bringing in new appointees, assigning new roles to some Ministers, and replacing others. It is a major set of personnel decisions showing the President’s highly evolved balancing of political and economic considerations, whose net effect will be known only over time.
The most celebrated addition to Jokowi’s cabinet is World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who returns to Indonesia as Finance Minister, her former position, bringing her strong reform and competency record.
Presidential confidant Luhut Pandjaitan, former Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law, and Security, is now Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, where he will also oversee the vital Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
Minister of Energy Sudirman Said and Minister of Basic Education AniesBaswedan, both of whom had reputations as reformers, are not in the new Cabinet. Trade Minister Thomas Lembong is now the head of the Board of Investment, BKPM. New figures head several other ministries, including Trade, and Energy.
A controversial appointment is that of General Wiranto (Ret’d), new Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law, and Security, owing to allegations regarding his role during Indonesia’s administration of the former East Timor, a period with serious human rights issues.
President Jokowi’s inclusion of members of Golkar and PAN in the new cabinet will likely help him consolidate his influence with Parliament.
The revamped cabinet is a major shake-up, with both evident gains as well as question marks for reform. To provide us insights on the new cabinet and its apparent implications, USINDO is pleased to present Mr. Paul Rowland, widely recognized expert on the Indonesian political system. Please join us for this informative event.
Please RSVP HERE by noon Monday, August 15. This event is open and without charge. We request recording devices not be used.
Speaker’s Biography:
Paul Rowland is a Jakarta-based consultant and analyst who has more than three decades of experience in leadership roles, both in overseas postings and in his native Canada. He has spent more than a decade in Asia and the six years prior in Eastern Europe where he led large operations in emerging market countries. He is an acknowledged authority on Indonesian politics and elections, security and climate change issues with both public and private sector clients.
Mr. Rowland has experience working with senior government officials including presidents, prime ministers, cabinet ministers and members of parliament as well as civil servants and diplomats at all levels in more than thirty countries from Mauretania to Mongolia. He has worked extensively in challenging environments in Europe and in Asia including Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Timor Leste, Nepal, Mongolia and Myanmar. For fifteen years, Mr. Rowland served as Resident Representative (Country Director) of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) with postings in Serbia, Hungary, Afghanistan and Indonesia.
In Canada, he spent twelve years working professionally in the area of strategic and political communications, working on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and in the field from coast to coast before beginning an international career that has taken him to more than thirty countries on four continents.
Mr. Rowland has been an accredited international observer to more than twenty elections. In 2009, he served as Mission Director for NDI’s election observation mission to Afghanistan’s presidential elections, leading a team of more than one hundred and twenty people in a challenging political and security environment.
As an analyst, Mr. Rowland focuses on the areas of politics, public policy, elections, governance, and aviation with an interest in defence and security issues. He is an advisor with Reformasi Weekly Review, a member of the ACE Network of Electoral Practitioners, an Associate at the Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI) in Canberra and a Fellow at the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) in Indonesia. He chairs the board of U.S.-based Carbonfund.org, a leading climate change organisation. Mr. Rowland lives with his family in Jakarta.