MEGAWATI QUESTIONS MINISTERS' PARTICIPATION IN CAMPAIGN TEAMS

Jakarta, May 29 (ANTARA) - Presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri here Thursday questioned the propriety of cabinet ministers serving as members of the success or campaign teams of contestants in the upcoming presidential race.

"The participation of ministers in presidential candidate success teams will reduce the quality of the government's performancce," she said.

"A cabinet is the working team of an administration. Its members cannot at the same time work as part of a political party's campaign team," the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP) leader said after dedicating a media center for her own and her running mate Prabowo Subianto's campaign in the runup to the presidential election on July 8.

Noting that under the constitution, the Indonesia government was structured according to the presidential system, she said "if we are still committed to the presidential system, it is improper for cabinet ministers to serve on the success team of any candidate to run in the presidential election."
If ministers were involved in presidential candidates' success teams, she said, the quality of the government's performance would suffer. "Perhaps, the cabinet will continue to function but not maximally," she added.

Megawati said she had noticed with concern that minds of the head of the government and his assistants were no longer focused on running the administration but on how to win the upcoming election. .

"I hope, this will not happen again in the future because it is really a very bad thing although I realize we are now still learning to practice democracy," she said.

Separately, some political observers have also critized the fact that a number of ministers were actively involved in the campaign team of presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the incumbent president, and several other ministers were to campaign for another candidate, Jusuf Kalla, who is the incumbent vice president.