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stinging report that less than a half of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s instructions were executed by his ministers should not be used as a pretext to reshuffle the Cabinet, a presidential spokesman says.

Politicians and pundits criticized Yudhoyono for letting many of his ministers ignore his instructions, which they said could be seen as an indication of weak leadership. They say the President should dismiss recalcitrant ministers and reshuffle his Cabinet as he enters his second year in office in October.

“It is going too far to interpret the UKP4’s report as a need for a Cabinet reshuffle,” presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said, referring to the Presidential Working Unit for Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4) led by Kuntro Mangkusubroto.

Kuntoro said the President gave 77 instructions to ministers and heads of institutions since January. “According to our data, the implementation of [the instructions] is still at less than 50 percent,” he told the press recently.

Kuntoro said the evaluation was still ongoing as many ministries submitted new data to his agency.

Cabinet Secretary Minister Dipo Alam said over the weekend that the President had issued 761 instructions in the last six months and 70 percent of them were implemented. “The implementation of [Yudhoyono’s] instructions reaches 70 percent [thus far],” he said in a press conference as quoted by Antara on Friday.

Julian said that Yudhoyono was aware on the growing call for a Cabinet reshuffle. “Yudhoyono listens to public discussion and media reports on the Cabinet reshuffle topic. But for the President, the purpose of a reshuffle is to achieve the targets of his administration, not to appease political pressures,” he said.

Former vice president Jusuf Kalla said the report from UKP4 could be used to evaluate the performance of Cabinet ministers.

“If there are ministers working ineffectively, [Yudhoyono] needs to seek more capable figures to replace [them],” he said in a public lecture at Muhammadiyah University in Yogyakarta on Saturday.

Democratic Party deputy secretary-general Saan Mustofa said Yudhoyono should reshuffle ministers for failing to implement instructions to avert them from becoming a burden.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto said Yudhoyono had not made an announcement on a Cabinet reshuffle.

National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said he had received reports on his ministry’s performance. “Frankly speaking, my ministry’s report has received a ‘red mark’, because a program is still ongoing,” he told reporters on Sunday.

He said the ministry received a substandard report regarding the program to provide scholarships to students joining the Olympics competition. “It is ‘red’ because the competition has not finished.” Asked on the rumors of a reshuffle, Nuh, a former rector of 10 November Institute of Technology (ITS), said:

“I keep my principle of working hard. Let the Almighty judge. The most important thing is I take my work seriously.”