Widodo names poll rival defense chief

Indonesian President Joko Widodo named his defeated election rival, a former general linked to human rights abuses, as his defense minister Wednesday and added entrepreneurs and technocrats to his Cabinet to address slowing growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

The lineup also features politicians from Widodo’s governing coalition who supported his victory in the divisive April election.

Widodo, 58, was sworn in Sunday for his second and final five-year term with pledges to champion democracy and take bolder actions against poverty and entrenched corruption in the world’s fourth-most populous country.

At the announcement in the presidential palace, Widodo asked his Cabinet and institutional heads to fight graft by creating a system to close off any chances of corruption.

“Don’t be corrupt!” Widodo told the ministers. “Be serious at work, and for those who are not serious, I would take them out of this (Cabinet),” Widodo warned.

Violent student protests last month against a law they say has crippled the country’s anti- corruption agency, which underlines the challenge in fighting graft, have threatened the credibility of Widodo, who was reelected after campaigning for clean governance.

Indonesia ranked 89th out of 175 countries in the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International.

Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, 68, has lost two presidential elections to Widodo, is a former special forces general, and the founder and leader of the Gerindra political party.

Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, had repeatedly said Indonesians should unite after the bitter election campaign.

He and his defeated rival met in July for the first time since the April vote and Subianto had been negotiating for Cabinet positions, signaling a calming of tensions.

Subianto initially refused to accept the election results, and nine people died in post- election riots in Jakarta. The country’s top court found no substance to his allegations of massive and systematic fraud and rejected his challenge to the election results in June.

Rights activists see Subianto’s appointment as a conservative backlash against Widodo’s efforts to address Indonesia’s poor human rights record.