APSN Banner

More changes in Gus Dur line-up?

Source
Straits Times - December 20, 2000

Susan Sim, Jakarta – The first Cabinet of President Abdurrahman Wahid had been in place barely one week before he began telling aides he wanted to sack some of them.

His second, hand-picked Cabinet is enjoying, it would appear, a longer lifespan: Talk of its reshuffle only began in earnest last week, some 15 weeks after it was sworn in.

And then only because some ministers were said to be planning to resign, chief among them the two men who helped design this second Cabinet, Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhuyuno and Administrative Reform Minister Ryaas Rasyid.

Yet, curiously, the ministers said to be vulnerable now are not these men, but others the political elite here judge to have been ineffective in performing their duties.

These include Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab, Attornery-General Marzuki Darusman, Research and Technology Minister A.S. Hikam, Manpower Minister Al Hilal, Interior Minister Surjadi Sudirdja and Defence Minister Mahfud.

They all have personal connections of some sort with the President and have no independent power base of their own, including Mr Marzuki, a Golkar deputy chief. Despite the high-profile legal fiascos involving the Suhartos, the A-G is, however, described by his colleagues as enjoying a special relationship with the President.

Mr Marzuki, shrugging off rumours that Golkar chief Akbar Tanjung had made a deal with the President to dismiss him, told The Straits Times that some "fine-tuning was to be expected" given the current stand-off between the President and Vice-President's political parties, and both parties against all others. And a mini-reshuffle would be inevitable if rumours of ministerial resignations do come true.

At least three ministers, Mr Bambang, Mr Ryaas and Justice Minister Yusril Mahendra, had been so disappointed by the president's choice of colleagues in August, they considered declining their appointments. But they did not, in large part because Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri asked them to stay. And now, for one of them at least, it would appear he can take no more.

The local media have been making much this past week of plans by Mr Ryaas to resign in January, citing his unhappiness with the President for vetoing some of his ideas for reforming and strengthening the bureaucracy ahead of regional decentralisation in January. Tempo magazine this week even gave a date for his resignation letter – January 4.

The minister told The Straits Times recently that if he did resign, he would choose a "quiet day", when most people were still away on holiday so no one would "over-dramatise" his departure. "I would look to make a peaceful exit," he said, unwilling to allow critics of the President to make political capital of his departure.

It is understood that he is also seeking the approval of the Vice-President before putting in his papers. She has reportedly asked him to stay on.

The President meanwhile, the minister said, had not made any attempt to discuss the resignation rumours with any of the three ministers, changing the subject when Mr Yudhuyuno attempted to clarify the situation during a meeting last week.

Confidantes say, however, that the chief security minister is unlikely to step down now. Said one: "Bambang is in a dilemma. He is aware of the situation that will entrap the President. He understands the political complications ahead. But he wants to project the image of loyalty to the President because he knows he is not secure because of the July 27 incident." The aide was referring to the attack on Ms Megawati's PDI-P headquarters in 1996 allegedly ordered by former President Suharto and carried out by Jakarta-based soldiers.

Then chief of staff of the Jakarta regional command, Mr Bambang can hardly claim ignorance of the attack even though he did not then have operational command over troops. Indeed, Mr Bambang may not be alone in his dilemma.

Given that many of today's officials grew up in a system which forced them to play along or be killed off, politically and literally, many would have skeletons that might not bear disinterring. Sticking with the President might be their best protection for now.

Country