Leading figures call for immediate Cabinet shake-up

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Calls for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to quickly shake up his Cabinet received more support on Thursday as senior politicians insisted that confidence in the economic team had dwindled.

Former Golkar Party leader Akbar Tandjung said the financial market was losing trust in the government's ability to improve Southeast Asia's largest economy, which is struggling to deal with the severe impact of the rising international oil prices and an ailing rupiah, which plunged to a four-year low earlier this week.

"Why wait until October, because now is the crucial moment and we can't afford to see things get worse," said the former House of Representatives speaker during a discussion.

Susilo announced during a gathering of Asian and European editors, organized by the Konrad Adenaur Foundation and The Jakarta Post, here on Monday that he would evaluate the performance of his ministers in October as had been initially planned.

Akbar asserted that the government was facing a negative perception problem because the economic ministers did not seem to be doing their jobs properly, and thus the technical economic solutions to resolve the current woes of the rupiah and the fiscal indices were not the answer.

"No matter how good the solutions may sound, the market players will not respond positively because they have perceived the current ministers to be ineffective. Fresh faces with better quality will mend that perception," he said.

Akbar's sentiment was shared by former state minister for development planning Kwik Kian Gie, who said the President should be decisive to stop this economic bleeding.

"Susilo must remain consistent to his promises to replace any ministers who turn out to be a failure, especially when economic observers and the media were heavily criticizing how things had become," Kwik said.

Both Akbar and Kwik said the decision to reshuffle the Cabinet was the President's prerogative, and that Vice President Jusuf Kalla should not to interfere, let alone force the President to accept his opinions on who would be replaced.

But Kalla told reporters on Friday that there would be no Cabinet changes in October, saying that what the President would do was evaluate the performance of his ministers.

He was quoted by detik.com news portal as saying that a minister would only be replaced if he or she made grave mistakes.

He further explained that cutting back on the fuel subsidies and raising the prices of gasoline and diesel would be more effective in resolving the current fiscal problem and the rupiah's woes.

Kalla leads the Golkar Party, the same party as Coordinating Minister for Economy Aburizal Bakrie. Golkar is the largest party in the House of Representatives, and thus plays a crucial role.

Aburizal, also a businessman like Kalla, has been a target of criticism for the current economic mess. Many have also suggested that Minister of Finance Jusuf Anwar be replaced.

"Aburizal should be the first to be replaced because as a coordinating minister, he's completely clueless about what should be done. We need a coordinating minister with excellent knowledge and practical skills," said Kwik.

Aburizal's alienation seemed to be evident when he was apparently excluded in the formulation of economic policies that President Susilo announced on Wednesday night -- a time when Kalla was out on a visit to China.

"Don't be indecisive because the coordinating minister is from Golkar. This is a national issue," said Akbar.