Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Cikeas, West Java | Thu, 10/15/2009 11:27 AM
Last laugh together: Economic ministers pose for photographers before attending their last meeting at the office of Coordinating Minister for the Economy Sri Mulyani Indrawati (center) in Jakarta on Wednesday. The new Cabinet will be sworn in on Oct. 21. Antara/Andika Wahyu
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has confirmed the Golkar Party’s inclusion in his new administration's coalition as he prepares to announce candidates to fill his next Cabinet on Thursday.
The President also said that the partnership between his Democratic Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) “had ended” with the election of PDI-P chief patron Taufik Kiemas as People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker and would not continue elsewhere.
Yudhoyono said in a press conference at his private residence in Cikeas, West Java, on Wednesday that new Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie had expressed Golkar’s willingness to stay in the government and coalesce with the Democratic Party in the parliament.
“As of tonight, our coalition consists of six parties,” he said, referring to the Democratic Party, Golkar,
the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
The last four parties are the Democratic Party’s original coalition partners, who supported Yudhoyono’s candidacy in the July 8 presidential election. His nomination had been challenged by candidates from Golkar and the PDI-P.
Commenting on the possibility of a coalition with the PDI-P, Yudhoyono said his party and
the PDI-P had only agreed to support Taufik’s nomination for the MPR speaker post, but the parties would not continue to work together either in the government or the parliament.
“Of course I respect the PDI-P, Gerindra [Great Indonesia Movement Party] and Hanura [People's Conscience Party], who have chosen not to coalesce with us; though I heard not all those will become an opposition.”
Speculation has circulated that SBY might have given the PDI-P a chance if the party had officially asked him for ministerial posts.
The President played down concerns that his bulky coalition and the PDI-P’s “not an opposition” stance would harm checks and balances mechanisms on the next government, saying he expected that even legislators from the Democratic Party would run supervision functions and be critical of the government.
Yudhoyono refrained from discussing potential candidates for the next ministerial posts.
He said he would “maintain fairness” by focusing on those who “had been fighting” on his side since the beginning, seemingly hinting that he would prioritize allocating ministerial posts to his original coalition partners instead of newer ones.
SBY added he had received candidate nominees from all the coalition parties, and that he would inform those he would appoint as ministers in the next two days.
The informed candidates would have to undergo a “it-and-proper” test, during which they would be asked to sign a pact of integrity and performance contract, and then a medical check-up.
The new Cabinet will be announced on Oct. 21, a day after his inauguration, the President said.
He stressed out that the next Cabinet would represent Indonesia’s diversity in terms of ethnicity, religion and gender; and that the number of departments and ministries would not change although some would have more responsibilities and functions.
