People in power: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (left) and People’s Consultative Assembly Speaker Taufik Kiemas (second left) enter the House of Representatives building to attend an inter-institutional meeting in Jakarta on Monday. The routine meeting was attended by top leaders, including the House speaker, Judicial Commission chairman, Constitutional Court chief justice, Supreme Court chief justice and the chief of the Supreme Audit Agency. JP/Wendra Ajistyatama
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has not announced plans for a Cabinet shake-up as the first year of his second term comes to a close, but that has hardly calmed the nerves of political parties in the ruling coalition.
Bima Arya, a political expert and National Mandate Party (PAN) politician, acknowledged that Yudhoyono had sent out strong signs of an impending Cabinet reshuffle, but added nothing was certain.
“We have nothing to lose. Let President Yudhoyono decide. If the evaluation says the minister from our party should be replaced, I think we can accept it,” he said.
The PAN has three representatives in the Cabinet: Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar and Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan.
Yudhoyono, who began his second term as President on Oct. 20, 2009, is expected to conduct an evaluation of his ministers after a year in office.
Ahmad Mubarok, a senior politician from Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, said recently that the President would reshuffle his Cabinet after the evaluation.
“This is the best time for President Yudhoyono to do it. The newly appointed ministers would have enough time — four years — to carry out their duties,” he said.
The Presidential Work Unit for Development Monitoring and Control, which is tasked with conducting the evaluation, denied that a Cabinet reshuffle was imminent. “I think anyone can speculate.
But I myself have never been asked to discuss a Cabinet reshuffle,” the unit’s chief, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, said.
However, rumors of a reshuffle have the coalition parties on edge.
While several major political parties, including the Golkar Party, have been urging the President to replace under-performing ministers,
smaller parties in the coalition have said such a move would be a “waste of time”.
The deputy secretary-general of the government-allied United Development Party (PPP), Muhammad
“Romi” Romahurmuziy, played down the rumors. “This is not the first time such a rumor has been sparked. Some parties have used this issue to intimidate other parties,” he said.
The two PPP ministers in the Cabinet are Public Housing Minister Suharso Monoarfa and Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali. Analysts have named both as candidates who have under performed in the last month.
However, Romi was upbeat the President would keep both. “Our ministers have done pretty well,” he said.
He lambasted Golkar for asking Yudhoyono to reshuffle his Cabinet, saying that the party was after more ministerial seats.
Golkar is the second-largest party in the House with 108 seats. However, only three Cabinet posts are filled by Golkar stalwarts.
Two other coalition members, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and PAN, command fewer parliamentary seats, but fill four and three Cabinet posts, respectively.
Priyo Budi Santoso, a member of Golkar’s central executive board and also one of the House of Representatives’ deputy speakers, denied his party was not content with the composition of the Cabinet.
“This is about how to make an effective government,” he said.
PKS lawmaker Fahri Hamzah said any minister who failed to perform well was not at fault because the minister’s performance depended on how well the President managed his Cabinet.
“It would be better for the President to improve his leadership style for the next four years [instead of reshuffling the Cabinet],” he said.
Yudhoyono reshuffled his Cabinet after the first year of his first tenure in 2005.
