Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Anita Rachman – Senior Democratic Party officials on Friday urged their two biggest partners to leave Indonesia's ruling coalition because they no longer shared the same views on government policy.

The Democratic Party's deputy chairman, Max Sopacua, said it would be the gentlemanly thing for the Golkar Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) to leave the coalition, given their history of breaking ranks with the Democrats on key policy issues.

He said that following the latest show of dissent, in which Golkar and the PKS voted against the Democrats for the ultimately failed bid to launch an inquiry into corruption in the tax office, there would be a serious evaluation of their membership in the coalition.

That echoed statements made earlier in the week by other Democrat officials.

"Why live under the same roof if we oppose [each other]?" Max asked. "It's better to just live in separate houses." He said the Democrats, who control 148 of the 560 seats at the House of Representatives, could get by without the support of Golkar and the PKS.

However, experts say the Democrats cannot realistically afford to lose the combined 163 House seats held by Golkar and the PKS.

But Max said that because the House did not often vote on issues, maintaining a majority in the legislature was not crucial. "The point is loyalty," he said. "Without loyalty, there is no coalition."

He said the Democrats expected a cabinet reshuffle soon to remove "disloyal coalition members" from ministerial posts. "With it's tendency to [go against the ruling party] I don't think the PKS will survive in the cabinet," Max said.

Senior Democrat and House Speaker Marzuki Alie agreed that if the PKS wanted to remain in the coalition, it would need to show more support for the government.

He said that if the tax inquiry had gone through, it could ultimately have been used to impeach the president, raising serious questions about claims by Golkar and the PKS that the inquiry was not targeted at the administration.

However, Golkar's secretary general, Idrus Marham, dismissed such talk, saying, "We are very consistent in supporting the president."

Anis Matta, the PKS secretary general and a House deputy speaker, said his party was committed to supporting the president, not the Democrats. "If they shoo us out [of the coalition], we'll accept it," he said. "But the Democrats aren't the decision makers. That's President Yudhoyono."