TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said seven ministers who had been elected as lawmakers of the House of Representatives (DPR) must resign from their posts prior to their inauguration.
Julian said, however, the State Secretariat had yet to receive any resignation letter from the ministers. “Ethically, they have to be willing to resign,” said Julian on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, outgoing President Yudhoyono has yet to issue neither instructions nor plans with regard to the situation. The president has not yet decided on the ministers' replacements either.
According to Julian, the resignation of these seven ministers will not affect the programs for the last 100 days of the president's term. National Development Planning Minister Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana said all of the programs would be completed by October 10. “Ad-interim minister mechanism will be adopted for the resigning ministers, so everything will still go on,” said Armida.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said the government had yet to find any definite regulation regarding the resignation of ministers due to becoming lawmakers. He added the usual mechanism in every change of government was that the president asked all ministers to resign. “In 2009, the president asked all ministers to resign to avoid overlapping positions,” said Gamawan.
The ministers that will become lawmakers in the next period are Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik, Cooperatives and Small-Medium Enterprises Minister Sjariefuddin Hasan, Transportation Minister E. E. Mangindaan, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar and Disadvantaged Regions Development Minister Helmy Faishal Zaini.
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