Three Cabinet Members Leave PSI, Raising Questions Over Party’s Future

JAKARTA, Indonesianpost.com — Three Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) members serving in President Prabowo Subianto’s Red and White Cabinet abruptly announced their departures from the party on Monday, November 9, 2026.

They are Deputy Culture Minister Giring Ganesha, Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni and Deputy Population and Family Development Minister Isyana Bagoes Oka.

PSI chairman Kaesang Pangarep accepted the resignations, saying the three wanted to focus on helping the president carry out his duties. Serving the country, he said, took precedence over party responsibilities.

“PSI’s central executive board accepts the resignations of Raja Juli Antoni as secretary-general, Isyana Bagoes Oka as deputy chair and Giring Ganesha,” Kaesang said on November 9.

In his statement, Giring said the party no longer aligned with the goals he had sought to pursue when he joined.

“Over the course of my time in the party, however, I came to feel that some things were no longer consistent with what I had stood for from the beginning. After careful personal consideration, I decided last week to resign my PSI membership. Thank you to the entire PSI family for the trust and camaraderie over the years,” Giring wrote on his personal Instagram account on November 9.

Raja Juli, meanwhile, said he was leaving to concentrate on his duties as forestry minister in Prabowo’s administration.

“President Prabowo has given us many instructions for developing the forestry sector, including rehabilitating forests, restoring ecosystems and protecting our biodiversity, particularly in the aftermath of forest and land fires,” he said.

Agung Baskoro, executive director of political consultancy Trias Politika Strategis, said the departures of the three cabinet members could not be separated from the controversies surrounding Indonesia’s seventh president, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, and his family.

PSI is led by Jokowi’s youngest son, Kaesang. Jokowi announced that he formally joined the party on October 14, 2025, and has been tipped to chair its advisory board.

Agung pointed to several controversies, including disputes over the educational credentials of Jokowi and his son, Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

“Publicly, PSI’s official explanation is that they want to focus on their cabinet work. Behind the scenes, however, we know this cannot be separated from the lingering controversies surrounding Jokowi and his family. PSI’s political orientation is Jokowism,” Agung said when contacted on Tuesday, November 10, referring to the party’s alignment with the former president.

Agung suggested those controversies had political consequences for PSI members serving in Prabowo’s government.

The situation, he said, had prompted the three to reconsider their positions in the party.

“They feel the repercussions outweigh the benefits. Their relationships with President Prabowo are affected, and their performance also suffers because, whether they like it or not, these controversies have come to dominate the national political stage,” Agung said.

He argued that their departures also showed a preference for Prabowo over Jokowi.

Could PSI Become an Opposition Party?

Photo caption: Giring Ganesha, Isyana Bagoes Oka and Raja Juli Antoni, the three cabinet members who have left PSI. Photo: CNN Indonesia.

Agung described leaving the party as a pragmatic and appropriate choice for the three.

“Like it or not, we have to acknowledge that they are choosing Prabowo over Jokowi,” he said.

He argued that the “Jokowi effect” — the former president’s political appeal and influence — was gradually fading as controversies involving him and his family continued to surface. Against that backdrop, Agung considered the departures a logical decision.

“If they stay in such a difficult, troubled situation, they could also suffer the consequences,” he said.

Adi Prayitno, a political analyst at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, also linked the departures to what he described as an increasingly unfavorable political climate for the “Solo camp,” a reference to Jokowi’s political circle.

Adi cited the controversy over Jokowi’s educational credentials and calls for Gibran to resign following Constitutional Court and Supreme Court rulings concerning diplomas and supporting certificates.

“A more pointed interpretation is that Raja Juli, Giring and Isyana are choosing to align firmly with Prabowo rather than the ‘Solo camp.’ Amid talk of a split between the Hambalang and Solo camps, it is hardly surprising that Raja Juli’s and Isyana’s departures reinforce the view that they are choosing Prabowo over Solo,” Adi said, using Hambalang as shorthand for Prabowo’s political camp.

He suggested the three may have made a pragmatic calculation: to remain aligned with the serving president rather than a former president who no longer holds executive power.

“The point is that these three PSI members faced a difficult choice between Prabowo and Jokowi, and all three chose Prabowo. That is Jokowi’s fate after leaving the presidency: being abandoned by people who once defended him most strongly. That is how power works,” Adi said.

PSI’s Political Direction

Despite the loss of its cabinet representation, Adi said he did not expect PSI to move into opposition.

He argued that the party had neither a history of opposing the government nor the resources to do so.

“PSI is unlikely to become an opposition party. First, it has no history of being in opposition. Second, it lacks the resources. Third, it is a party without seats in parliament and carries limited political weight,” Adi said.

Agung, meanwhile, said PSI’s future political direction would also depend on Gibran’s position as vice president.

If PSI no longer had members in the cabinet but Gibran remained in government, he said, the party could act as a counterweight or a critical partner of the administration.

However, if the House of Representatives initiated impeachment proceedings and Gibran was ultimately removed from office, Agung said PSI could move into opposition.

“PSI has only two options. The first is to act as a counterweight, like the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle: a critical partner, a strategic partner. But if Gibran is also out, then it automatically becomes an opposition party,” Agung said. [IP/Bilah]