Almost nine months after President Joko Widodo announced the line-up of his working Cabinet, a deteriorating economy and slow progress of reform are the driving forces determining the necessity of a Cabinet reshuffle.

While many question whether it would be too soon to judge the ministers in their respective roles, Cabinet reshuffles are not an unusual exercise in post-Reformasi administrations.

Former President Abdurrahman Wahid reshuffled the Cabinet four times during his two-year tenure. Dr Yudhoyono, the predecessor of Mr Widodo, or Jokowi, as he prefers to be called, changed his Cabinet line-up 14 months after his first-term inauguration, and had a total of five reshuffles during his two-term presidency.

… Leonard C. Sebastian, Tiola Javadi and Adhi Priamarizki are, respectively, associate professor and coordinator, research associate, and associate research fellow with the Indonesia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). This commentary first appeared in RSIS Commentaries.