Febriamy Hutapea & Muninggar Sri Saraswati – Political analysts on Thursday said the ruling Democratic Party should not hesitate to trim its coalition after it had openly accused the Golkar Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) of disturbing the harmony of the alliance.

"It has been very clear that the coalition is not performing well. I think it is too bulky, the president must have the courage to slim it down, otherwise, he and the Democrats should stop complaining," political analyst Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said.

After an overwhelming victory in the 2009 legislative elections, both the president and the Democratic Party should be confident of being able to garner the necessary support in the House of Representatives to implement government policy, he said.

Fajar Nursahid of LP3ES agreed, saying that the government has been too busy handling cases – like the rift between the law enforcement institutions and the Century case – to focus on improving the people's welfare, a loss of focus exacerbated by a shaky coalition.

"The president should know by now who is loyal and who is an opportunist. He should let those opportunist [parties] go," he suggested.

On Thursday, Democratic Party lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul said that [Golkar and PKS] appear to have a hidden agenda of using the House probe into the Century Bank bailout to corner Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

"Even the opposition parties are not as hostile as some of the coalition parties," he said, pointing to demands made by Golkar and PKS members to suspend Boediono and Sri Mulyani while the Century probe is in progress.

As a member of the ruling party, Ruhut said that he had an obligation to defend Boediono and Sri Mulyani and therefore a similar stance should also be taken by the coalition parties. "Everyone should be consistent. If they want to be critical, they needn't tag along," Ruhut said.

Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie and the party's top executives have denied the accusations. PKS lawmaker Misbakhun rejected the idea that hidden interests were behind his party's criticism of the Century issue.

"We have no intention of trying to corner certain ministers. We're investigating the case within the correct framework in order to solve the bailout scandal," he said.

The coalition agreement between the PKS and the Democrats, he said, should not force the party to turn a blind eye to the Century scandal.

"Don't tell us to be silent or just follow blindly. We have to be critical. This is our way of strengthening coalition ties," Misbakhun said.