Knowing that these two ministers are true democrats who will happily thank their critics and who are also belligerently anti-violent, I brave myself to express my honest -- but perhaps unintelligent -- assessment of them: Both Suryadarma Ali and M.S. Kaban are cowards! Perhaps they are even parasites in the Cabinet!

But I do apologize, Pak Suryadarma and Pak Kaban, if my conclusion is totally baseless. Suryadarma is the chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) and also state minister for cooperatives and small and medium enterprises. The PPP controls 58 seats in the 550-member House of Representatives. Kaban is the chairman of the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and forestry minister. His party has 11 seats.

But I swear I am not a supporter of the President. I did not vote for him in the 2004 elections. He does not know me at all. I have no intentions of becoming a bootlicker to the President. There is no conflict of interests here, because who would ever be interested in a person like me?

Before explaining my arguments, let me use this rare privilege to add to the list of two-faced members in the President's Cabinet. Like Suryadarma and Kaban, I am also confident they will not harm me just because their names are on the following list. They are all statesmen, democrats and peace lovers.

First: National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari and State Secretary Hatta Radjasa. They all come from the National Mandate Party (PAN) with Amien Rais as the party's icon. The party has 53 seats in the House.

Second: Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono, Public Housing Minister Muhammad Yusuf Asy'ari and State Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs Adhyaksa Dault. They are from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). This party has 45 seats in the House.

Third: Social Services Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah from the PPP also should be included in the list.

Luckily or unluckily, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno and State Minister for Development of Disadvantaged Regions Muhammad Lukman Edy are exempted from the list. The two National Awakening Party (PKB) activists have been declared traitors by the party's patron Abdurrahman Wahid.

All those ministers are lucky enough, because the President still trusts them to stay in the Cabinet. According to the most basic logic, they should have quit from the Cabinet, or the President should tell them: Get out!

Why?

Before the President decided to raise fuel prices in the wake of a global energy crisis, he held several meetings with Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Cabinet members. They fully supported the unpopular decision, because the ministers -- even all who opposed the price increase -- know that whoever leads Indonesia in these times will not have any other choice in dealing with the rising oil prices but to do what the President did.

The President calls his assembly of ministers the gotong royong (mutual help) Cabinet because it comprises ministers from several political parties. It is a coalition Cabinet. It means all coalition members should support the Cabinet decision. If they do not agree they must leave the Cabinet. That is my logic. But how about the logic of the ministers?

Only the Golkar Party -- chaired by Jusuf Kalla -- and the Democratic Party -- founded by Yudhoyono -- supported the government's decision to raise fuel prices. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the only opposition party in the House, naturally opposed the hike. How about other members of the Coalition Cabinet? On Tuesday, the PPP, the PKS and the PAN factions supported the inquiry petition to force the government to rescind the policy.

On Tuesday, 233 of the 360 legislators present at the DPR plenary session voted in favor of the inquiry petition. The legislators used the violent student protests outside the House as an opportunity to picture themselves as populist legislators. But people know the legislators are just buying time. They are preoccupied with their growing internal problems, especially since the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) targeted some of their own colleagues.

So, the ministers must announce to the public, "We are no longer members of the party", when they prefer to stay in the Cabinet. The political parties with members in the Cabinet also have to tell the public, "They are not our members".

But why do the ministers and the political parties prefer to take the shameless position, pretending to oppose the government policy while at the same time enjoying the privileges of the Cabinet? "Habisnya enak sih (What else can I do? It's so comfortable here)." The remark is perhaps the most honest answer to the questions.

The writer can be reached at purba@thejakartapost.com

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