We apparently must wait another day before learning who will form the working team that will assist President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in implementing his vision and the mission of his government during the next five years as he needs to ensure that the core members of the team have impeccable integrity.

It is heartening to learn though that the short delay in Jokowi’s announcement of his cabinet has nothing to do with horse trading to strengthen his coalition at the House of Representatives. The last glitch was the finding of the Corruption Eradication Commission that a few of the ministerial candidates being considered by Jokowi had been implicated in malfeasance and therefore had to be dropped.

Jokowi’s obsession with having people of integrity fill the ministerial positions ― to the extent that honesty and sincerity is everything ― is understandable because integrity and competent leadership are his basic political capital in winning the trust of the people. Even the smallest stain on his reputation and that of his main aides could damage the public’s trust and market confidence in his leadership.

The Jokowi government badly needs to maintain public trust because the economic woes his government is immediately facing will require short-term sacrifices on the part of the people for the long-term good of the economy.

But without strong public trust, the Jokowi government will have neither the legitimate right nor the moral integrity to ask for sacrifices from the people, who have been suffering a lot.

If the government is perceived as corrupt, the people will become cynical and eventually oppose whatever the government proposes in the way of sharing economic hardships, which sometimes is needed for the long-term good of the economy. Trust has to be earned and nurtured based on integrity, dedication, fairness and the ability to deliver on promises.

None of the pro-people economic programs Jokowi promised during his election campaign will be able to be realized if he does not immediately slash the fuel subsidy. Market confidence in the new government will collapse if Jokowi does not put energy reform at the top of his working programs because the huge wasteful spending on fuel subsidies could cause the fiscal deficit to explode to an unmanageable level.

But this measure will inflict economic pains in the short term even though it will be supported with well-prepared social-safety net programs for the poorest segment of society.

Likewise, the government should work immediately to revise the 2015 state budget, which was designed by the previous government, and propose the changes to the House as early as January.

As tax revenue during the first three quarters reached only about 60 percent of the target set for the whole 2014 fiscal year, the new government will have to intensify tax collection during the last quarter to maintain the budget deficit at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product as set in the State Budget Law. Exceeding the ceiling deficit could raise sovereign risks and consequently the cost of government borrowing.

(Editorial, The Jakarta Post)

(Asia News Network)