Jakarta/Medan. Calls continue to mount for President Joko Widodo to reshuffle his cabinet, after a promised shakeup expected before the end of last year failed to materialize.

Salim Segaf Al Jufri, a former minister in the cabinet of Joko’s predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was the latest to wade into the issue, saying on Sunday that the president needed to surround himself with more technocrats and fewer political party appointees.

“What I’d like to see is the president increase the number of his ministers from the ranks of professionals,” Salim, the former social affairs minister from the Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS, said on Sunday. “That way, the ministers will be more focused [on their jobs] and not be distracted by party issues.

“This is an important point when you consider the heavy challenges that the nation faces,” he added.

Salim also said he hoped there would be fewer instances in the coming year of ministers publicly criticizing or berating one another, as was the case last year.

The most belligerent of Joko’s ministers in this regard was Rizal Ramli, appointed in a reshuffle in August to the post of coordinating minister for maritime affairs and natural resources. Within days of taking office, Rizal managed to rile up State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno and Vice President Jusuf Kalla by criticizing aspects of their respective policies.

Rizal later also riled up Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan, and belittled the energy minister, Sudirman Said, for going public with allegations that Setya Novanto, the speaker of the House of Representatives, attempted to bilk mining giant Freeport Indonesia out of $4 billion in shares. The complaint prompted a House ethics tribunal, compelling Setya to resign as speaker.

Rizal, who has no party affiliations, also claimed in November that there would be a second reshuffle before the end of the year. That never happened.

The call to push out party-affiliated minister was echoed by Gandi Parapat, coordinator of the Medan-based Indonesian Center for Political and Legal Monitoring, or PMPHI.

“There’s no need to carry out a reshuffle if the aim is only to give concessions to the parties in the government’s ruling coalition,” he said on Sunday.

“The president must break loose from the chokehold and interests of the parties. The public has placed its hopes in Jokowi because of his reputation for being populist, firm and of high integrity. So it would be best for him to ignore the interests of the parties.”

Even the nominally apolitical Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-biggest Islamic community organization, has emphasized the need for a more professional cabinet.

“If the candidates being put forward by political parties don’t have the track recor, capacity or competency for the job, the president should reject them,” Busyro Muqoddas, Muhammadiyah’s head of legal affairs and public policy, said last Wednesday.

Busyro, a former deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, also noted that none of the parties represented in the cabinet had spoken out against a bid by the House to water down the KPK’s powers through legislative revisions.

“I personally find this regrettable,” he said. “It shows that the parties have a very low commitment to fighting corruption.”