Indonesia's cabinet: Hitting a balance

Megawati announces her cabinet

By CNN Jakarta Bureau Chief
Maria Ressa

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Eighteen days after taking office, Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri gave her first policy speech since the day she was sworn-in.

Confidently, she outlined the powers of the president that allows her to choose a cabinet answerable only to her.

Yet, she also acknowledged the authority of the legislature. Fresh from its victory over her predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia's lawmakers are testing the limits of their power.

She said in choosing her cabinet that she consulted with her Vice President Hamzah Haz, who heads the Muslim United Development Party or PPP.

She also met with all party leaders and the factions of the Parliament and the People's Consultative Assembly.

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The result is the Gotong Royong Cabinet or the Cabinet of Working Together -- a reference to an old Indonesian custom when neighborhoods worked together to achieve a common goal.

The cabinet has been expanded to 30 ministers: three top coordinating ministers, 17 ministers and 10 state ministers without ministries.

At first glance, Megawati succeeded at one thing: refusing to succumb to political pressure to load the Cabinet with politicians. In fact, her greatest success in this cabinet was finding a delicate balance between appointing career professionals and politicians.

The top portfolio was returned to a familiar face. Retired General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs.

He held this post under Wahid, who fired Yudhoyono because he would not support the declaration of a state of emergency.

The job of dealing with separatist, religious and ethnic violence now fall on Yudhoyono's shoulders.

Still, the focus was on economics. Megawati said her main goal was to restore a faltering economy saddled by a debt totaling about $154 billion.

The main problems: to stabilize a fluctuating rupiah and to push forward the reforms of the banking system.

To handle this job, she named Dorodjatun Kuntoro-Jakti to the post of Chief Economics Minister. A respected economist, he is the outgoing ambassador to the United States.

He will be backed by another economist, a technocrat, Budiyono. A former Central Bank director, he headed the National Planning Agency under former President BJ Habibie.

Megawati with her deputy Hamzah Haz before announcing the new cabinet

The Minister for Trade and Industry is Rini Suwandi, the former CEO of Astra International (Indonesia's largest carmaker).

She was credited with putting together Astra's debt restructuring deal, the first major deal by an Indonesian company after the regional financial crisis hit in 1997.

Rounding out the economics team are two prominent Megawati aides -- both part of Wahid's cabinet -- both fired by Wahid.

Laksamana Sukardi is a former Citibank executive. He returns to his old job as Minister for Cooperatives and Small/Medium Enterprises. Kwik Kian Gie takes the post of Minister of the National Development Board (BAPPENAS).

Reaction to the cabinet announcement was immediate. The currency, the rupiah, strengthened slightly before leveling off -- still hitting a 10-month high. But financial markets dropped slightly.

"There is a mixed feeling in the market," says economic analyst Syahrir. "But I can say that looking at the personalities, especially in the economic team, I have reason to be a little optimistic."

Not all are pleased with the tone set by the new government. Jeffrey Winters, a political analyst, said: "The orientation of the new administration is one of extreme caution. Baby steps as opposed to dramatic sweeping moves in terms of appointments."

Winters believes a more action-oriented government may be necessary to deal with Indonesia's problems: from the economy to lawa and order to corruption.

Still, after social, political and economic turmoil that led to four presidents in three years, Indonesians are craving stability. Now there is some hope this Cabinet will bring that.