Speculation of rift clouds reshuffle

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).