Megawati urged to fill vacant jobs in cabinet
Megawati urged to fill vacant jobs in cabinet
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta
For the sake of the Cabinet's performance, President Megawati
Soekarnoputri has every reason to fill vacant ministerial posts
with permanent replacements, although her administration's term
will end in less than five months.
"Everybody wants to be a minister, and Indonesia has numerous
suitable people for the position, but she (Megawati) doesn't want
to recruit them," National Mandate Party legislator Alvin Lie
told a discussion here on Friday.
He said, despite the fact that her days as president were
numbered, Megawati's administration should ensure that public
services would not be affected by the resignation of ministers.
Megawati, he added, lacked seriousness in dealing with
national matters and this was reflected in her reluctance to
appoint permanent replacements for resigning ministers.
The President has named interim ministers, whose workloads are
already heavy, to take over from senior ministers Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla. Another minister, Agum Gumelar, has
joined the presidential race, but not yet quit the Cabinet.
"It is Megawati's prerogative to appoint new ministers or not,
but she has the obligation to make sure public services in the
next five months of her tenure will not be harmed," he said.
Deputy House speaker Muhaimin Iskandar of the National
Awakening Party concurred, saying the absence of political
courage was one of Megawati's main weaknesses, and her
administration would have achieved significant progress in the
past few years if she had shown strong leadership.
According to him, the next five months would be enough time
for Megawati to win back people's support for her presidential
bid.
"Megawati still has five months to make strategic policies to
win the hearts and minds of the people, but she has been busy
inaugurating development projects that could be manipulated to
raise funds for her presidential bid," he said.
Megawati, who has named the leader of the country's largest
Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, Hasyim Muzadi, her running
mate, will be facing a strong challenge from Wiranto and Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, from the Golkar Party and the Democrat Party
respectively.
Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political analyst at the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI), expressed his disappointment over
Megawati's indifference to the performance of her administration.
"The people would be behind her if she appointed permanent
replacements for all resigning or sick ministers," he said.
According to him, the President should appoint replacements
for communications minister Agum, defense minister Matori Abdul
Djalil and justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra because their
portfolios were strategic.
"The nation is in urgent need of a replacement for Agum, who
has to resign due to his vice presidential candidacy. A new
defense minister is also needed to replace ailing Matori, and to
help solve the poor relations between the defense ministry and
the Indonesian Military.
"Yusril should be replaced to prevent him from posing any
trouble to Megawati's government, because he, and his party, has
supported the pair of Susilo and Kalla," he said.
Ikrar was of the same opinion, that it was the right moment
for Megawati -- and politically valid -- to introduce strategic
policies to win the people's support for her reelection.