Speculation of rift clouds reshuffle
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Two days have past, but by Sunday night President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had yet to announce the line up of the new Cabinet as promised on Friday.
Speculation was rife over the weekend that a rift had occurred between Susilo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, leading to the delay.
Central to the supposed conflict was the position of Aburizal Bakrie, currently the chief economics minister, following the announcement that the President had appointed the respected former finance minister Boediono into the Cabinet.
However, it is not even clear when Susilo will announce his long-awaited new Cabinet.
After addressing the closing ceremony of a UNESCO-sponsored international conference on education on Sunday morning, he left Jakarta for Makassar, South Sulawesi, to address the opening of the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association (ICMI) national meeting in the evening.
On Monday and Tuesday, the President is scheduled to visit Yogyakarta and Magelang, Central Java, for other ceremonial events.
Susilo will open the 2nd Junior Science Olympiad in Yogyakarta while in nearby Magelang, he is scheduled to attend a ceremony at the Military Academy.
The President is also expected to visit a Muhammadiyah junior high school and hold a dialogue meeting with the Taruna Nusantara High School in Magelang.
Susilo told reporters on Friday in Medan, North Sumatra, that he had invited Boediono to become part of his new economics team and that the new Cabinet would be announced in two or three days. The news cheered the financial markets, not only on the news that Boediono, who is well-respected for his fiscal prudence, would be in the Cabinet, but also that there would finally be an end to the months of uncertainty over the reshuffle plan.
But considering the President's schedule of regional visits over the next few days, the promise is unlikely to materialize as such an important announcement would normally be made at the State Palace in Jakarta, and in the presence of the Vice President.
There are concerns that a further delay could reduce public confidence in the government, which has been criticized particularly for the weak performance of its economics team in dealing with the country's economic problems. No less than Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Hidayat Nurwahid urged the President on Sunday to immediately unveil the new Cabinet line-up. "The President certainly must consider immediately implementing what he has promised. Don't let the public be continuously kept in uncertainty."
The main sticking points for Susilo in reshuffling the Cabinet, observers have said, center on what to do with the current Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie, who is believed to be strongly supported by Kalla, chairman of the powerful Golkar Party, of which Aburizal is a senior member.
To help improve the credibility and performance of the economics team, Susilo appears keen to put Boediono in charge, a move that may be opposed by Kalla, whom insiders said was often in disagreement with Boediono when the two served as ministers in the previous government of Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Some have suggested that Susilo would likely replace Aburizal with Boediono, and assign the former economics minister as Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare.
Others have said that Susilo may create a new position for Aburizal to accommodate Kalla's will by creating two new portfolios: Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Affairs (to be given to Aburizal) and Coordinating Minister for Economics, Finance and Development (to be given to Boediono).