Indonesia's Prabowo Sacks Finance Minister After Internal Rift Over Staff Rotation

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto dismissed Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa after a dispute with a senior ministry official who once served on the president's special forces team, according to government sources familiar with the matter.

The friction centred on a reshuffle of hundreds of officials at the finance ministry, most of them in the tax and customs directorates. Customs and excise chief Djaka Budhi Utama and tax department head Bimo Wijayanto both objected to the job rotation, saying they had not agreed to it. Djaka took his complaints directly to Prabowo.

Both officials report to the finance minister but were handpicked by the president. Djaka, a former member of Prabowo's special forces team, is described as enjoying unusually direct access to the president, while Purbaya needed approval from the president's inner circle to secure meetings.

The dispute peaked at an inauguration ceremony last Thursday for officials across senior and middle-management ranks, where Purbaya said the rotation was based on professional assessments and consultation. Djaka objected and reported the matter to Prabowo on Friday, before the president left for India to attend the BRICS summit. Prabowo returned to Jakarta early on Monday, and Purbaya was informed of his dismissal the same day by a call from the president's spokesperson while he was answering lawmakers' questions at a hearing on the 2027 budget plan.

Purbaya said on Tuesday, after handing over to successor Suahasil Nazara in a brief ceremony, that an internal reshuffle played a part in his removal but did not elaborate. He said he was following Prabowo's policies.

Suahasil, a veteran technocrat promoted from deputy finance minister, told reporters he would review all the appointments. In a message to senior ministry officials, he said he had advised Purbaya to postpone the ceremony until the concerns of the tax and customs chiefs were addressed. The customs office said it was awaiting direction from the new minister on the appointments.

Djaka denied any conflict preceded the sacking. Bimo and the presidential office did not respond to requests for comment.

The falling out was not Purbaya's only fractious relationship with top officials. He clashed with Bank Indonesia's previous governor, Perry Warjiyo, over a policy of placing government cash in state-owned lenders to support credit, and was at odds with Danantara chief Rosan Roeslani after saying the sovereign wealth fund would transfer 120 trillion rupiah ($6.8 billion) of its profits to help meet this year's fiscal-deficit target. Rosan later said no such plan had been discussed.

Prabowo has appointed close allies and several former and active soldiers to top government posts, including Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya and the head of national airline Garuda Indonesia. Analysts say the president's reliance on trusted loyalists can override technocratic decision-making in Southeast Asia's largest economy. Wijayanto Samirin, an economist at Paramadina University, said Prabowo values loyalty highly but warned this could come at the expense of a merit-based system.