State apparatus minister to continue working despite call to resign

Indonesias State Apparatus and Bureaucracy Reform Minister Asman Abnur said he would continue to work professionally despite a call to resign from a high-rank official of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

"It is a political matter, I would not take part because my task here, as a professional, is to work," Abnur said at the Presidential Palace complex here on Monday.

He admitted that he was yet to discuss the issue with the partys official who asked him to resign.

"I will see this later, now my task is to work, work, and work," he stressed.

Earlier on Sunday, chairman of Honorary Council of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Amien Rais, called for his partys withdrawal from the cabinet, also known as the Working Cabinet.

Rais made his statement after an open house at Al-Ishlah Islamic boarding school in Bondowoso, East Java. He called on Abnur to resign from his post as the State Apparatus and Bureaucracy Reform Minister.

Responding to the call, PANs chairman Zulkifli Hasan said that the issues on cabinet members would become the presidents prerogative rights.

"It would be the presidents prerogative rights," Hasan said.

PAN, which joined the coalition of parties that supported the government, has posted Abnur as the minister.

However, it was urged to withdraw from the coalition following its disagreement on the newly approved law on general election that maintains the presidential threshold at 20-25 percent and vote conversion method.

The government and its coalition parties have opted a presidential threshold of 20-25 percent, parliamentary threshold of 4 percent, general election system (open), seat allocation (3-10 seats), and vote conversion method (Saint Lague).

PAN, as the only coalition member, preferred a presidential threshold of 0 percent, parliamentary threshold of (4 percent), general election system (open), seat allocation (3-10 seats), and vote conversion method (quota share).

PAN, along with other parties not included in the coalition, including Gerindra, Demokrat, and PKS, staged a walkout from the parliaments voting on draft law on general election.(*)    

Source: ANTARA