Camelian Pasandaran & Anita Rachman – Prospects for a cabinet reshuffle fizzled out on Wednesday with the State Palace denying there would be a shake-up anytime soon or that opposition parties had been offered seats.

State Secretary Sudi Silalahi stressed that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had never given a time frame for a reshuffle and only said it would happen "whenever it is needed."

"All people need to know is that to date, the president has never officially said he will reshuffle the cabinet in the near future, [nor has he] mentioned the ministers who could be replaced," Sudi said. He also called for an end to media speculation about which ministers were likely to lose their seats in a shake-up.

"This kind of speculation could affect the concentration of cabinet members and their performance at a time when they should be focusing on carrying out government programs to solve problems for the benefit of the nation," he said.

Talk of a reshuffle, which first emerged in September as Yudhoyono marked the first year of his second term in office, was revived last month when the Golkar Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) backed an ultimately failed bid to launch a probe into corruption at the tax office.

The two parties, both members of the ruling coalition, have frequently broken ranks with Yudhoyono's Democratic Party on key issues, leading to calls from senior Democrats for the president to kick them out of the coalition and their ministers out of the cabinet.

After holding talks with Yudhoyono, Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie said on Tuesday that his party would remain in the coalition.

The president has also called closed-door meetings with all the other coalition partners, with the notable exception of the PKS.

Reports that Yudhoyono was courting the opposition Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) were dismissed on Wednesday by Daniel Sparingga, a presidential adviser.

"We appreciate the PDI-P's position as an opposition party," he said, although he stressed that a "rearrangement" of the coalition was still needed.

"When the president decides to announce this publicly, he will ensure that the most important thing is to make an effective government," Daniel said. "A strengthening and rearrangement of the coalition and communication between parties will be essential to bring all the components closer."

Hanta Yuda, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute, said there was still a 50-50 chance a cabinet reshuffle would take place. Should it happen, he added, the makeup of the coalition would likely remain the same, with Gerindra still on the outside.

"It's been reported that Gerindra is eyeing key cabinet posts that Golkar currently holds, so maybe they won't reach a deal," he said.

However, Hanta said the president was probably still weighing the benefits of dropping the PKS in favor of Gerindra. If there was to be a reshuffle, he said, it should be carried out before next week at the latest. "Any later and it's better to not shake up the cabinet at all," he said.

Fadli Zon, Gerindra's deputy chairman, meanwhile, denied that the party had been looking for cabinet seats. "It's not true that we're asking for positions," he said.