Anita Rachman – Obviously irritated by the barrage of criticism aimed at the government by its ruling coalition partners, Democratic Party executives on Wednesday called on coalition parties to keep their members on a leash.

"If the comments are not the official party line, then we ask them to stop it – it only serves to disturb the coalition's solidarity," said Saan Mustopha, the Democrats' deputy secretary general.

"I hope the leaders of all [member] political parties can tell their cadres to stop the infighting. If this gets any bigger, it could hurt the coalition."

Saan did not mention any parties by name, but is thought to have been referring to the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and United Development Party (PPP), whose executives have recently been outspoken in their criticism of the coalition and its joint secretariat.

Members of both the PKS and PPP have spoken out publicly about the management of the coalition, the dominance of the coalition's two largest parties – the Democrats and the Golkar Party – and the lack of communication between member parties.

They also raised the idea of forming a "central axis" within the coalition that would group together its four mid-sized members, all Islamic-oriented parties. The Democrats and Golkar, however, have dismissed the idea as unnecessary.

Jafar Hafsah, the head of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, was more blunt about the coalition infighting, saying that if political parties had problems, they could leave the coalition at any time. "We are not going to hold on to them," he said.

Jafar also accused some of the coalition members of having reneged on their initial promise of solidarity. Instead of presenting a united front on various issues, he added, the coalition had rather been plagued by dissent.

Saan said the aim of the coalition was to create unity both in the legislature and executive. At it is now, he said, member parties in the House often oppose policies that had already been agreed to by the coalition. "Now that is a coalition whose members are only interested in their own gains," he said.

Syarif Hassan, who represents the Democrats in the coalition's joint secretariat, or Setgab, said he was sure the idea of a central axis would never materialize, and that although there had been differences on certain issues between the parties in the past, the lines of communication were still open between all coalition members.

Member parties, he added, needed to be committed to the coalition. "We need to stand together to build this nation," he said.

Syarif also dismissed rumors the Democrats were eager to have the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) join the coalition, saying any talks between the two had been part of the Democrats' regular communications with all parties, including those in the opposition.

A senior PDI-P official, Taufik Kiemas, on Tuesday said an alliance with the Democrats as part of the 2014 presidential election campaign would be more viable than one with Golkar.

Taufik, who chairs the PDI-P's advisory board and is also the husband of party chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri, said that unlike Golkar, which is widely expected to nominate its chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, for the presidency in 2014, the PDI-P and the Democrats had no obvious candidates at the moment.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Democratic Party's patron, is prevented by law from running for a third five-year term in 2014. Megawati, who has launched two losing bids for the presidency, is seen as unlikely to mount a third bid for the office.

But Jafar dismissed Taufik's overtures. He said that as the country's largest party, the Democrats would obviously nominate their own candidate for the presidential election. "Of course we have [candidates]," he said. "Just because Pak Taufik doesn't know about them, doesn't mean that we don't have any."

The Democrats have so far not named any possible candidates for the 2014 presidential race, and do not appear to be grooming anyone to make a run.

Observers have said that there are no obvious presidential candidates inside the Democratic Party who could maintain unity as well as Yudhoyono has done.

Yudi Latief, a political expert from the Reform Institute, however, said on Tuesday that talk of an alliance between the Democrats and PDI-P was political posturing aimed at bolstering both parties' short-term interests ahead of the polls.