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fter months of highest-level lobbying and public pressure that sapped much of the nation'€™s energy, the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) eventually stopped the prosecution of former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad and his deputy Bambang Widjojanto.

 Attorney General M. Prasetyo predictably faced harsh criticism from the camp that has been dying to see Abraham and Bambang prosecuted and to send a chilling message to the KPK: Don'€™t play games with powerful personalities.

But the news was received heartily by KPK supporters who had viewed the Abraham and Bambang cases as politically charged. Prosecution was aimed not only at weakening the KPK but also at undermining anticorruption campaigns, which receive the unwavering support of the masses.

Prasetyo said the criminal cases of Abraham and Bambang were stopped '€œfor the sake of the public interest'€ and to show respect for their unrelenting activity in the common goal to combat corruption.

'€œTheir track records should become a source of inspiration in the war on corruption,'€ he told journalists on Thursday.

The then KPK leaders landed in legal trouble after the antigraft body named Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, now the deputy National Police chief, as a suspect in a graft case. He was suspected of financial misdeeds in his capacity as head of the Career Development Bureau at the National Police from 2004 to 2006. He allegedly sits on a Rp 95 billion fortune, presumed by some to have been amassed through bribes and gratuities.

Budi is known as a close ally of Megawati Soekarnoputri, chair of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Shortly after Budi'€™s suspect status was made public, Bambang '€” a former lawyer '€” was arrested on charges of ordering one of his clients to give false statements in a Constitutional Court hearing about alleged vote rigging in the 2010 West Kotawaringin regental election in which a PDI-P politician, Sugianto Sabran, was a losing candidate.

Abraham was accused of document forgery back in 2007 when he helped a woman apply for a passport. The attorney general'€™s decision to freeze their cases, which had been suspiciously dredged up from events that occurred long before they became KPK leaders, has lessened the KPK'€™s burdens and is raising hopes that the commission can focus better on its tasks.

But only time will tell if the police, as the institution which has been involved in bitter conflicts with the KPK time and again, can honestly accept the AGO'€™s ruling. Better coordination between the KPK, the police and judicial institutions would surely boost the fight against corruption.

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The bickering among Cabinet ministers that first burst into the open in August last year is yet to show signs of letting up, despite President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s repeated warnings for his aides to confine outbursts based on differences to internal meetings. Presidential spokesman Johan Budi acknowledged that the conflicts between some Cabinet ministers had taken a turn for the worse lately.

'€œApparently, the rivalry begins to develop into personal attacks on each other,'€ he told the media.

So bitter is the bickering that some Cabinet ministers, such as Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said, have uploaded their animosity onto their social media accounts for all to see. Rizal and Sudirman have been locking horns over the government'€˜s plan to build 35,000 megawatt power plants, and the animosity heightened lately over where the Masela gas refinery plant should be built. Rizal insists on building it on land in Maluku but Sudirman wants a floating one.

They are also sticking to their guns on Freeport Indonesia'€™s future contract issue. Rizal wants the contract terminated in 2021 but Sudirman is seeking an extension. Rizal is also at odds with Vice President Jusuf Kalla for renaming his office, the '€œOffice of Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Resources Minister'€, expanding his area of coordination without Jokowi'€™s consent.

Conflicts also pit Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan against State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Sumarno over the Jakarta-Bandung bullet train project; Trade Minister Thomas Lembong and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti over processed fish products imports; Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi over assessments of ministers'€™ performance.

The protracted conflicts demonstrate poor coordination among the President'€™s key aides and cast doubt on his administration'€™s capability to fulfill campaign promises. How can ministers serve the people'€™s interests if they waste their time and energy attacking each other?

The disharmony should warrant Jokowi reviewing his '€œworking Cabinet'€ to improve the solidity of his administration, which aims to accelerate economic growth, combat endemic corruption, revolutionize the nation'€™s mentality and improve infrastructure '€“ notably build new seaports and renovate existing ones.

Now, when economic ministers are busy quarreling, people doubt that the Jokowi administration will be able to do its job effectively. No wonder Jokowi'€™s critics, especially politicians from opposition parties, have been pressing for a Cabinet reshuffle.

The bickering also costs the government credibility in the eyes of the House of Representatives, which is teeming with hostile politicians, including those from the PDI-P, the party which supported Jokowi'€™s ascension. Unless Jokowi is able to restore order, his working Cabinet will be sneered at as a '€œquarreling Cabinet'€.

'€” Pandaya