‘I bid you all farewell’: Tears and tributes flow as Sri Mulyani booted from Indonesian Cabinet

JAKARTA – Tributes, tears and words of appreciation flowed in for veteran technocrat Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Sept 9, a day after an abrupt Cabinet reshuffle in Indonesia that resulted in the ouster of five ministers.

After serving as finance minister for more than a decade under three presidents, Dr Sri Mulyani’s sudden removal came

in the wake of violent protests and the looting of lawmakers’ homes

, including hers.

Notable figures took to various platforms to praise the impact and reputation the 63-year-old had in the global finance arena.

Some lauded Dr Sri Mulyani as a “disciplined guardian of the state budget”, while others described her exit from Cabinet as a “credibility shock”.

One scene in particular that tugged at heartstrings took place at the lobby of the Finance Ministry building in Jakarta, where hundreds of officials gathered around noon, waving flowers and singing a popular Indonesian song, Language Of The Heart.

“In your smile, I can hear the language of your heart... Only I truly understand the restlessness of your soul,” the song went.

And as the officials reached the final stanzas, they took turns presenting their flowers to Dr Sri Mulyani, who teared up as she thanked them.

On Sept 9, she officially handed over her role to

seasoned economist Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa

, who held various senior government positions before helming the Indonesian equivalent of the US federal deposit insurance corporation in the past five years.

Among those removed by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Sept 8 were the coordinating minister for politics and security, and the minister of migrant workers’ protection.

In her closing speech at the handover ceremony, attended by MPs and former fellow ministers, Dr Sri Mulyani described the Indonesian Finance Ministry as a pillar of stability and an instrument that can improve the welfare of all Indonesians and the nation’s progress. 

She also appealed to her successor and all state apparatus to continue to manage the nation’s finances prudently, and thanked all the bureaucrats who had worked with her during her time in government.

“Work has never been easy... I bid you all farewell today, and please, from now on, respect my privacy as an ordinary citizen,” she said in her broadcast speech.

In recent weeks, Dr Sri Mulyani had become one of the targets of public anger, and her residence in the upscale Bintaro district in Banten province outside Jakarta was stormed and looted by mobs on Aug 31.

Anger had been building against her after a viral deepfake video showed her calling teachers a “burden”, along with her own controversial remarks equating taxes with Islamic alms, or zakat.

She also faced criticism for her lack of timely support for initiatives to support investments from foreign electric vehicle manufacturers, as well as her aggressive and unequal approach to collecting taxes.

Dr Sri Mulyani had reportedly asked to step down following the looting incident.

Rumours of her resignation have circulated since early 2024, amid alleged disputes with Mr Prabowo who, as the then defence minister, had ambitious spending plans for procuring weaponry.

Still, Mr Prabowo retained her as finance minister when he became president in October 2024.

Following the news of Dr Sri Mulyani’s exit on Sept 8, the Jakarta Composite Index, which measures the movement of all stocks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, declined two days in a row – 1.28 per cent and 1.78 per cent on Sept 8 and Sept 9 respectively – reflecting investors’ concerns. Indonesian bonds and currency also fell, signalling a sell-off by wary investors.

“Indonesia just lost its most trusted economic voice,” Maersk JV Company chief financial officer Arbianto Setiawan wrote on LinkedIn on Sept 9, describing her as Indonesia’s “most disciplined guardian of the state budget”.

He said that her departure has raised concerns of weakening fiscal discipline and that the budget could be stretched “dangerously thin” by ambitious social programmes.

Dr Sri Mulyani served as an executive director at the International Monetary Fund from 2002 to 2004, cementing her reputation as a leading technocrat in global finance.

Her first term as finance minister was from 2005 to 2010, under then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

She then joined the World Bank as managing director from 2010 to 2016, before returning to Indonesia to assume the finance portfolio under then President Joko Widodo in 2016, a position she held until 2025.

While serving under Mr Widodo, better known as Jokowi, Dr Sri Mulyani was on several occasions credited for resisting pressure over the president’s tendency to favour populist policies such as excessive social aid, according to the local media.

“Like Jokowi, President Prabowo is acting as the gas pedal, trying to drive as much growth as possible, while Sri Mulyani has served as the brake, applying restraint and providing a balancing control,” a Jakarta-based analyst who has worked with senior finance ministry officials told The Straits Times. He declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of his comment.

Former central banker Harry Baskoro wrote in a social media post: “Sri Mulyani’s exit is more than a personnel change, it is a credibility shock.”

He added: “When the most trusted fiscal anchor is pulled up, markets do not just wobble, they start to question the compass itself”, pointing out that Dr Sri Mulyani’s strength was fiscal discipline.

In a LinkedIn tribute, Ms Deva Rachman, a former adviser at Prospera, an Australian-backed grant agency that promotes inclusive growth in Indonesia, said: “Gold will always be gold, wherever they are.”