Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Two senior officials from the House of Representatives urged the president on Friday to reshuffle his cabinet this month or miss out on the chance to improve his administration's much-criticized performance.

Priyo Budi Santoso, the House deputy speaker from the Golkar Party, said the poor performance of several ministers had been highlighted in a review by the Presidential Working Unit for Development, Supervision and Oversight (UKP4).

By ordering a reshuffle this month, he said, the new cabinet members would have three years to turn the affected ministries around and make an improvement. Postponing the reshuffle to next year, however, would not bring about any change for the better.

"If there's no reshuffling in the near future, it will be too late," Priyo said. "If it's not conducted now, then it would be better to retain the current cabinet until the end of the administration's term [in 2014]."

He said Golkar would not object to a change, as long as party chairman Aburizal Bakrie was consulted on the issue. Golkar has three members in the cabinet.

Talk of a reshuffle flared up last October following the UKP4's first cabinet evaluation that assigned failing grades to several ministries. It was revived in recent months by revelations of graft in at least two ministries.

Two Manpower and Transmigration Ministry officials were arrested last month for taking bribes, allegedly at the request of the minister, Muhaimin Iskandar, who has said he knew nothing about the alleged bribes.

Those allegations came soon after charges of bid-rigging came to light at the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry, headed by Andi Mallarangeng.

Andi is a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party. The main suspect in that case, Muhammad Nazaruddin, is the party's former treasurer. Pramono Anung, the House deputy speaker from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the president should heed the current wave of public dissatisfaction with the administration's performance and make changes.

"I suggest the president reshuffle the cabinet based on consideration of the ministers' performance," he said.

Pramono warned against consulting with coalition partners on the reshuffling decision, arguing that conflicting advice would only confuse the president.

Taufik Kiemas, a PDI-P stalwart and husband of party chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri, said he doubted Yudhoyono was bold enough to order a change anytime soon. He said he believed the president was too timid to do so without the backing of political party leaders from his coalition.

"I've never heard any of the parties publicly stating that their members in the cabinet have performed poorly," he said. "If they start talking about it, then I'm sure the reshuffle will be conducted."

Romahurmuzy, secretary general of the coalition's United Development Party (PPP), said any proposed change should be based on clearly reasoned arguments for a minister's failings, not on pressure from other parties. "Reshuffle without giving into pressure from groups with vested interests," he said.

Romahurmuzy also argued that the poor performance of individual ministries should not be automatically attributed to the minister. "The president must identify the real source of the problem. Is it the minister or some other factors?" he said.

Two PPP ministers have come under particular scrutiny – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, who has been widely criticized for his hard-line policies against the minority Ahmadiyah sect, and Housing Affairs Minister Suharso Monoarfa, whose alleged philandering led to his wife filing for divorce this week.