Jakarta. Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman admitted Thursday that a “moral crisis” within his ministry had become one of the challenges that he had faced in his first 100 days in office.

President Prabowo Subianto established a giant cabinet comprising 48 ministers, five heads of state agencies, and 59 deputy ministers when he assumed power in October. About 100 days have passed since this giant Red and White cabinet took their oath of office. 

Andi Amran, who is at the helm of a ministry that got caught in a graft case two years ago, looked back on his first 100 days under the new Prabowo government. The minister admitted that climate conditions -- which can lead to drier conditions -- were among the challenges that he had to deal with so far. The same goes for the rain-inducing La Nina. Andi Amran claimed that he had already taken care of those climate-related problems. Now that these issues are already taken care of, the monthly national rice production is forecast to soar by up to 50 percent year-on-year (yoy) on average in January-March.

“So the 'El Nino' outside [the government] deals with drought. But there is an ‘El Nino’ within the ministry, and that is a moral crisis. There were problems in the past, and we already dealt with them one by one,” Andi Amran told reporters on the sidelines of the 2025 Beritasatu Economic Outlook forum in Jakarta.

Andi Amran said: “We adopt meritocracy. We will take action against those who violate [the rules]. We already did so with 60 [individuals], and even fired 11 people in a single day.”

Amran was the agriculture minister during Former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s first term in 2014-2019. Jokowi later appointed Ex-South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo to lead the agricultural ministry. In October 2023, the anti-corruption commission KPK named Syahrul -- popularly known by his initials SYL -- a graft suspect, accusing the latter of extorting or receiving up to Rp 44.5 billion (around $2.7 million) in bribes from his subordinates and ministry’s directorates.

SYL was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He also has to serve an additional four-month prison term if he fails to pay the Rp 500 million fine. Jokowi then reinstalled Andi to the ministerial job. Prabowo also later chose Amran as his agriculture minister as the retired army general wants Indonesia to be self-sufficient in its food supply by 2027.