Cabinet reshuffle keeps Golkar firmly on board

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Vice President Jusuf Kalla was not feeling well, according to his aides, but his face was wreathed in smiles as he boarded the Fokker F-28 presidential plane that would take him back to Jakarta on Monday night.

"I am relieved as you guys won't chase me anymore," Kalla quipped, as some journalists who were traveling back to Jakarta on the plane sought his response to the minor Cabinet reshuffle announced by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono one hour earlier.

"Your predictions were all wrong, weren't they?"

This time around, Kalla did not put his hands in his pockets as he normally does when feeling good.

Monday's announcement at the Yogyakarta presidential palace ended month-long speculation about who would join and who would be ejected from the one-year-old Cabinet, which Susilo was clearly unhappy with.

Kalla's Golkar Party lost the chief economics minister post previously held by Aburizal Bakrie, who had become the central focus of the reshuffle talks for his controversial statements and policies.

Susilo picked Boediono, his colleague when he, as well as Kalla, served in the previous Cabinet under President Megawati Soekarnoputri, to fill the powerful post.

Golkar had insisted that Susilo retain Aburizal, who formerly ran his Bakrie Group holding company.

"Ical represents Golkar, Pak Kalla did not want the President to replace him," said a Golkar member, referring to Aburizal by his nickname.

Aburizal was shifted to the coordinating minister for people's welfare post, but Golkar won another consolation prize as the President gave seasoned Golkar politician Paskah Suzetta the National Planning Board chairmanship.

With Fahmi Idris kept on his new portfolio as industry minister, Golkar now has three representatives in the Cabinet.

Golkar is the main bedrock of political support for Susilo, who was nominated by minor parties in last year's election. Kalla took over the party's helm only after he won the election as Susilo's running mate.

Concluding its executive meeting late in October, Golkar confirmed its status as a pro-government party.

The Cabinet reshuffle could have seen one more ministerial post go to Golkar, but Susilo instead granted it to the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction loyal to former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid in an apparent bid to further increase his majority support in the House of Representatives.

The PKB's swing to the government side will make Susilo's job easier after the first year that saw political contention and a series of natural disasters.

In his speech announcing the reshuffle, Susilo said the changes to his Cabinet were aimed at improving the coordination and effectiveness of his government, which in turn would boost his administration's performance.

Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said the minor reshuffle was "the minimum effort" Susilo could make to placate Golkar.

"He could appease Golkar by giving it one more seat in the Cabinet. But he did not give a pivotal position to the party," Ikrar said.

Meanwhile, Maswadi Rauf of the University of Indonesia said the public considered the reshuffle "strange" as the President had failed to put the right man in the right job as he had promised previously.

"If the President considers Ical's record to be poor, why didn't he dismiss him? There is no relation between (the work) of the chief economics minister and the coordinating minister for people's welfare. It seems that Ical must be in the Cabinet at all costs," he said.