Observers ‘speculate too much on reshuffle’

JAKARTA: Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring said he did not believe President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would reshuffle the Cabinet and that speculations had been exaggerated by political observers.

“Some observers have been exaggerating their speculations. They say the President complains to the public about his ministers’ performance. It’s not true. It’s only normal that the President sets standards and gives ministers directives.”

Sembiring, who is among the ministers that observers speculate may be replaced, claimed the President had never reprimanded any of the ministers.

Theories about the impending reshuffle came earlier this week after President Yudhoyono complained in public that some of his aides had been slow in responding to high-profile issues, such as police officers’ suspicious bank accounts and public resentment over remissions for graft convicts. “What the President meant was that his aides explain to the public what they plan for certain major issues so as not to develop into polemics,” he said as quoted by detik.com. — JP