Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Golkar stalwart Priyo Budi Santoso's call for a cabinet reshuffle was rebuffed by other lawmakers from the ruling coalition as political grandstanding on Tuesday.

Priyo, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, made the call following a recent evaluation that gave a quarter of the cabinet failing grades for their respective performances over the past nine months.

However, House Speaker Marzuki Alie, from the ruling Democratic Party, said Golkar should "stop politicizing everything for its own interests."

He said the evaluation, conducted by the Presidential Working Unit for Development Supervision and Control (UKP4), was a routine performance appraisal and should not be used as an impetus to change the cabinet and that legislators should not "interfere in the executive branch of the government."

"Any decision to reshuffle the cabinet should be made by the president," Marzuki said. "Neither political parties nor lawmakers should get involved in this issue."

Marzuki justified the failing grades by saying the cabinet was less than a year old and needed more time to come together.

In its report, the UKP4 flunked the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, the Communications and Information Technology Ministry, and the Public Works Ministry, as well as all three coordinating ministries.

United Development Party (PPP) secretary general Irgan Chaerul Mahfiz also denounced Priyo's call, saying he should not try to influence the president's judgement of his own cabinet.

"We really hope that if a reshuffle is forthcoming, then it's based on the president's own sound judgement, and not on the political agenda of a single party," Irgan said. "If the president deems a reshuffle is necessary, then we won't object."

Rather than busying itself with getting more of its members into the cabinet, Golkar should pay greater attention to more pressing problems like rising food prices, Irgan said.

Mahfud Siddiq, deputy secretary general of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), also said Priyo was out of line in calling for a cabinet reshuffle. He suggested that Golkar could be using the assessment as a ploy to replace its own ministers in the cabinet.

"Perhaps they don't want the public to catch wind of their internal problems," Mahfud said. "So they pounce on the UKP4 evaluation as an excuse to withdraw their own troubled members from the cabinet."