"Fadel is a highly educated figure and has a good performance record but why was he replaced?," Akbar Tanjung, chairman of the Golkar Party`s advisory council, said here on Thursday.
He made the statement at a discussion on the dialectics behind the cabinet reshuffle, specifically the question whether the shake-up was done in the interest of the people or of the ruler.
Akbar said that Fadel had worked hard, diligently and intensively. He also always directly interacted with farmers and fishermen.
"Fadel has shown he is on the side of the small people and he defended salt farmers by rejecting salt imports," he said.
According to Akbar, Fadel himself had also questioned his discharge from the cabinet while he had been working hard.
Akbar said he had asked Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie about Fadel`s ouster from the cabinet, "Aburizal said he too had not expected it," Akbar said.
Akbar who is a former Golkar Party chairman, said Fadel was a highly educated person. He was an engineer who graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and earned a political science doctorate from Gajahmada University in Yogyakarta.
Akbar said he had also received complaints and questions from farmers and fishermen in a number of regions in Indonesia about Fadel`s replacement.
"We explained that the replacement of a minister is a prerogative of the president. So, it is the president who knows the reason why Fadel was dropped from the cabinet," Akbar said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
