PKS vows support for SBY Cabinet
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) very likely elicited a big sigh of relief from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the Muslim-based party reconfirmed its support for his government, at least for another year.
Wrapping up its two-day meeting, the influential PKS board of patrons unanimously agreed to grant Susilo a crucial vote of confidence.
"The board of patrons will not withdraw support for the government. PKS will not leave the United Indonesia Cabinet either," PKS chief patron Hilmi Aminuddin announced during a press conference.
The good news for Susilo came just after the Golkar Party announced its position as the bedrock of political support for the one-year-old government of Susilo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is also the Golkar leader.
At least two PKS regional chapters (Yogyakarta and Jakarta) had demanded that the party leave the government due to its decision to raise fuel prices by an average 126 percent on Oct. 1, a policy which was narrowly approved by the party.
In its eight-point statement, the PKS patrons were aware that Susilo had not fully complied with the deal he inked with the party ahead of the presidential election last year.
"The implementation of the political contract over the past year has not lived up to the public's expectation, but is still within the tolerable limit given the transitional period from a dictatorial regime," PKS leader Tiffatul Sembiring read out from the statement.
PKS lent its support to Susilo with conditions that the president would promote good governance, improve education, uphold the supremacy of law and create more job opportunities. Susilo won an outright majority in the presidential election runoff over the incumbent Megawati Soekarnoputri 14 months ago.
After a little more than a year, Susilo's government has earned praise for its fight against corruption, but drew criticism for its poor management of the economy as reflected by the soaring inflation rate and increasing unemployment numbers.
Tiffatul said the party would maintain its position as "a critical partner" of the government and push for some change in the Cabinet, particularly the economic team.
The party will pass along its performance evaluation of the economic ministers directly to the President, but it will not be made public.
"We will submit our assessment to the government directly, so that if the reshuffle in the economic team does not take place, nobody will have hard feelings," Tiffatul said.
Over the next year, the party plans to encourage the government, particularly PKS-affiliated ministers, to improve.
In the field of law enforcement, PKS is demanding prosecution of government officials and businesspeople implicated in high- profile cases, who have so far managed to elude justice. PKS also demanded that the People's Consultative Assembly maintain a 1998 decree that requires legal moves against corruption cases involving former president Soeharto.
Golkar, on the other hand, recently presented an award to Soeharto for his service as the party's founder. In an interview on RCTI television on Friday, Golkar leader Kalla hinted that the party might propose an annulment of the 1998 decree against the former dictator, who stepped down in 1998 after 32 years in power.