Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The Golkar Party's demand last week for a Cabinet reshuffle to enable it to place more party members in senior positions has not impressed political analysts.
The party controls 128 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives but only has three party members in the Cabinet.
J. Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said that the Cabinet reshuffle, requested in the 17-point statement released at the end of the party's recent leadership meeting, was a great disappointment. "Golkar is seeking more seats in the Cabinet and in local governments," Kristiadi told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
Golkar has been clear in its disdain for the Yudhoyono's government. Yudhoyono is said to "favor" an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle member in a dispute over a gubernatorial post. Southeast Sulawesi Governor and Golkar member Ali Mazi is on trial for graft.
Golk has released the names of 13 Cabinet ministers it believes should be replaced due to "poor performance". Kristiadi said that the reshuffle request could well backfire, as the public would regard the party as not serving the people.
"The poor, the unemployed, justice seekers and those forcibly evicted to make way for development projects must be dismayed because their hopes that Golkar would help them through popular programs has been dashed," he said. Golkar, he added, needed to fully support government programs over the next three years if it wanted to win the people's sympathy.
Maswadi Rauf, a professor of political science at the University of Indonesia, said Golkar's four-day meeting last week was aimed at consolidation for the 2009 presidential election, in which the party is likely to field Kalla as its candidate.
"Golkar leaders in the region are clearly unhappy with its leader being number two in the government even though it won the legislative election. Moreover, it has only three cadres in the cabinet," Maswadi said. He also predicted that the demand for a cabinet reshuffle would further strain relations between Kalla, Yudhoyono and Golkar.
Maswadi criticized what he saw as "Yudhoyono's soft stand" on the political leaders who make up his Cabinet. He said the politicians should have quit their titles in their respective parties so that they could concentrate serving the public.
"He should have barred JK (Jusuf Kalla) from running in Golkar's chairmanship race in the 2004 Bali congress," Maswadi said. "Besides, because Indonesia applies a presidential, not parliamentarian, system of government, SBY should be more assertive in his decision making because he doesn't have to rely on the House of Representatives for political support." Meanwhile, politicians from minority parties supporting the government said Golkar, instead of criticizing Yudhoyono, should withdraw its cadres from the government and become an opposition party instead.
"From the outset we are sure Golkar would withdraw its support for the government mainly because the Yudhoyono-Kalla pair was elected directly by the people," said Batughana, deputy chairman of the Democrat Party.