Author: Luke Lischin, National War College

With the announcement of President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo’s latest cabinet on 23 October 2019, prospects for liberal government reforms have all but vanished. Whether or not Jokowi’s appointment of former high-profile members of Indonesia’s military and police into cabinet posts was a cunning bid to neutralise his rivals or just a lapse in judgement, the President empowered a national security community set on clawing back influence lost since 1998.