Stop the Jostling, Allies of SBY Told

Political parties that supported President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s re-election are being told to calm down amid increasingly rabid and public jockeying for cabinet seats.

One of the most intense battles appears to involve the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which on Thursday publicly called on the Golkar Party to join the opposition in the legislature and end its attempts to squeeze into the ruling coalition. This comes after the president issued a statement saying he hadn’t even started arranging the composition of the cabinet for his second term.

Senior Democratic Party leader Anas Urbaningrum called on parties in Yudhoyono’s coalition to cool down in discussing the ministerial posts, saying the president was determined to create “an ideal cabinet.”

“The elected president has an opportunity to appoint cabinet members from any party,” Anas said. “The party coalition will surely be respected, but it does not mean the door is closed to parties outside the coalition.”

The Islam-based PKS, which has three seats in the outgoing cabinet and backed Yudhoyono’s campaign, said Golkar should accept the consequences of running Vice President Jusuf Kalla as its candidate.

“It would be better if Golkar served in the opposition for the sake of checks and balances in the House,” PKS leader Zulkieflimansyah said on Thursday, denying accusations the party was worried it might not get as many posts in the next cabinet.

“We don’t want people to get the impression that we are rejecting [Golkar] because we are afraid of losing our position,” Zulkieflimansyah said.

Priyo Budi Santosa, a senior Golkar member, countered by saying, “Don’t worry, we will not take over the ministerial seats.”

Yudhoyono’s camp has said ministerial posts for parties that supported him would be divided based on the number of House seats they won in April’s legislative polls, which are still being tabulated. PKS is set to get the most, having won 7.8 percent of the vote, while the National Mandate Party (PAN), United Development Party (PPP) and National Awakening Party (PKB) all won 5 percent to 6 percent. Golkar finished second with 14.4 percent.Yudhoyono appears to have been re-elected by a wide margin, and his Democratic Party won over 20 percent of the vote in April.

Some political analysts said that even if Golkar wasn’t in the coalition, the Democrats still needed the nationalist party and its grassroots political machine to help run the country and provide balance against Islam-based parties like PKS and PAN.

Meanwhile, asserting that his party would not beg for cabinet spots, PAN secretary general Zulkifli Hasan said, “If Golkar decides to ally with the Democratic Party, it’s their right to do so.”

Denny JA, director of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), said that Yudhoyono, who bucked the trend of megacoalitions by choosing former central banker Boediono as his running mate, shouldn’t reward smaller coalition members with cabinet seats.

“Yudhoyono has a strong position in setting up his cabinet independently, objectively and without pressure from anyone because he has a strong mandate from the people and his party dominates the House,” he said.