Loyal members want SBY to use carrot and stick deal

On the heels of the apparent opposition stance of the Golkar Party and the Prosperous justice Party (PKS), other partners in the government coalition called for a reward and punishment system applied in a renewed pact with the President.

Taufik Kurniawan, the secretary-general of the National Mandate Party (PAN), suggested that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono revamp the contracts with coalition members.

“The contract should be renewed with a tighter one,” he said.

Yudhoyono’s coalition of political parties was formed after his main supporter, the Democratic Party, failed to attain a majority at the House of Representatives in the 2009 election.

This comes regardless of the fact that the President won his second term by securing 60 percent of votes in the presidential race.

Yudhoyono offered ministerial positions to the parties in favor of stronger support to his policies at the House. To his disappointment, coalition partners have not always taken his side and his party in the legislative body.

Golkar and the PKS have repeatedly sided with the opposition, such as in the initiation of the legislature inquiries into the Bank Century bailout and the rampant tax corruption.

Taufik said the President’s current contract with the political parties might contain loopholes causing certain coalition members to politically maneuver to oppose the government.

“The President should implement the reward and punishment system to any coalition members breaking the contract,” he said.

In the latest ruckus regarding the inquiry bid into rampant tax mafia in the country, the President’s party only won by two votes to overrule the initiative, which had been backed by Golkar and the PKS.

The President later announced that there had been members that had broken the coalition pact, causing him to reform the contract and possibly punish the defying members.

He started by summoning all coalition members but the PKS.

Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie was the latest guest to the State Palace, which ended with the party’s pledge to remain in the coalition.

Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi dismissed speculation on a possible Cabinet reshuffle a day after the meeting after the President left his party’s executives and other coalition members ventured on the shake-up possibilities in public.

“The reward and punishment system is important to prevent rebellious acts. The President should have not spent too much time concerning misbehaving coalition members,” head of the National Awakening Party’s (PKB) faction at the House of Representatives, Marwan Jafar, said.

A member of Golkar Party national executive board, Bambang Soesatyo, said he would not object the plan to renew coalition contracts as long as it did not prevent coalition parties from expressing criticism of the government.

PKS deputy secretary-general Mahfudz Siddiq said that the party would “wait and see”.

Mahfudz, however, denied the party had violated the political contract with President Yudhoyono. “What we did in the tax inquiry vote, for example, was still in line with the coalition’s code of conduct,” he said.