REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MATARAM -- A politician of the National Democrat (Nasdem) Party , one of the coalition supporting the government said his party is in favor of immediate reshuffle of the six month old cabinet of President Joko Widodo to have a more effective government.

Lawmaker from the Nasdem faction Kurtubi said his party would support if the president decides to reshuffle the cabinet.

"The authority to reshuffle the cabinet is fully in the hand of the president , but as part of the ruling coalition we would support immediate reshuffle if the president wants to improve the performance of his cabinet," Kurtubi said here on Wednesday (6/5).

Nasdem is a minority party but it has a relatively large number of its cadres in the cabinet.

Kurtubi agreed that the cabinet has not performed as expected after six months especially in the economic sector.

The country's economy grew only 4.71 percent in the first quarter of this year slower than in the same period last year.

Kurtubi, however, said it is not fair to lay the blame on the government including the president and the cabinet members.

"We have to acknowledge we did not perform well in economy, but it was not fair to blame the president and his cabinet for the performance being not up to expectation," he said.

He said the execution of the state budget had been delayed over a number of factors such as the forming of new or merger of ministries.

The merger of ministries delayed work because of time needed in the selection of directors general resulting in delay in execution of budget, he said.

There are also external factor such as the US monetary policy with impact on rupiah stability , he said.

He refused to name the cabinet members considered under performing that need replacement.

Kurtubi , an oil and gas expert , specially drew the attention of said the president to the oil and gas and general mining sector.

The management of the sector needs to be improved, he said, adding the sector, under the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulator (SKK Migas), has often been beset by corruption.

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