Choose people over parties, Yudhoyono tells ministers

Desy Nurhayati ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Bogor   |  Thu, 03/06/2008 1:22 AM  |  Headlines

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has warned his Cabinet members and government officials who hold party executive posts to stay focused on state jobs despite the looming 2009 elections.

The President said officials should choose public and national interests over their political agenda to win votes in the legislative and presidential elections next year.

"The country's political atmosphere has turned hot this year, and will get hotter next year, the year of the election. But that's normal in democracy, as long as it doesn't disrupt national security and stability," Yudhoyono said Wednesday in his visit to Kertamaya village in Bogor, West Java.

Pointing to seven Cabinet ministers in attendance, the President expressed confidence they would continue to work as ministers despite their affiliations to political parties.

"Pak Hatta (State Secretary) and Pak Bambang (Education Minister) are not the ministers of PAN, Pak Anton (Agriculture Minister) and Pak Yusuf (Public Housing Minister) are not PKS ministers, Pak Lukman (Minister for Development of Disadvantaged Regions) is not the PKB minister," said Yudhoyono, referring to the National Mandate Party, the Prosperous Justice Party and the National Awakening Party.

"Neither Pak Freddy (Fishery and Maritime Affairs Minister) nor Pak Ical (Aburizal Bakrie, the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare) are ministers of the Democrat Party or Golkar. All of them are the people's ministers," he said.

Of the 35 ministers in the United Indonesian Cabinet, 15 are affiliated to political parties. Four of them are from Golkar Party, three from the Democratic Party, and two each from PKB, PKS and PAN. There is one each from the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI).

Yudhoyono himself is the chief patron of the Democratic Party, while Vice President Jusuf Kalla is Golkar leader.

Then ministers under president Megawati Soekarnoputri, Yudhoyono and Kalla quit the Cabinet a few months before the 2004 legislative election.

Indonesian presidents post-1999 have found it difficult to form a professional Cabinet as their parties could not win the majority of seats in the House of Representatives.

Election law requires government officials to take unpaid leave if they insist on helping their political parties during elections.

Critics, however, have lashed out saying that politicians-cum-public officials tend to abuse state facilities for party interests. Yudhoyono did not address this issue.

He said the government had always done its best to eradicate poverty and improve people's welfare.

During the visit, Yudhoyono handed over Rp 720.63 billion in aid to West Java Governor Danny Setiawan to support the National Program of Community Empowerment, a poverty eradication program. The community-based program, which began last year, is aimed at 3,999 districts nationwide. The government has allocated Rp 13 trillion this year to implement the program.

The President also inaugurated the Menteng Asri low-rent apartment blocks in Bogor and the Arif Rahman Hakim flyover in Depok.

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