Jakarta. Public Works Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said Tuesday that he had no plans of resigning from his ministerial post. 

Basuki said he planned on sticking with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s cabinet until his term ends in October. 

“I was instructed to do so [to remain in the cabinet],” Basuki told reporters at the presidential palace in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The press also asked whether “those instructions” came from Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri. Basuki said it had been quite a while since the last time he met Megawati.

He added: “I last saw her [Megawati] in person when I attended her birthday party.”

The minister said that the resignation rumors were a thing of the past.

“I’m always working,” Basuki said. 

The mass cabinet resignation rumors first erupted following senior economist Faisal Basri’s remarks. Faisal alleged that there were cracks within Jokowi’s ministerial cabinet after the president’s apparent favoritism towards presidential candidate and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo has picked Gibran Rakabuming --Jokowi’s eldest son-- as his running mate for the February election.

Many of Jokowi’s ministers came from PDI-P who had chosen Former Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo as their presidential pick. Ganjar’s running mate Mahfud MD resigned from his post as the chief security affairs minister, just weeks before Indonesians cast their ballot on Feb. 14.

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