Brief profile of Gus Dur's reshuffled Cabinet
JAKARTA (JP): Below is a brief profile of President Abdurrahman Wahid's reshuffled Cabinet which consists of two coordinating minister, 16 ministers heading departments, five state minister and three junior ministers.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who's stature in the Cabinet has risen in the past few months gets increased responsibility in this key post.
He along with Ryaas Rashid and Erna Witular were the initial conceptors of the new Cabinet structure.
Formerly holding the post of Minister of Mines and Energy, Susilo is a retired Army lieutenant-general.
Born in Pacitan, East Java, in 1949, he was the Indonesian Military's chief of territorial affairs before his first appointment to the Cabinet in October last year.
The father of two has a distinguished military career. In 1995 Susilo acted chief of the military observers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before being appointed to the Cabinet, many had predicted that he would one day assume the mantle of TNI Chief.
His masters degree in management, which he earned from Webster University in the United States, could be useful in his new coordinating post.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Rizal Ramli was born in Padang, West Sumatra on May 10, 1953, is known as one of the strongest critics of the International Monetary Fund which he accused of dictating its will on the Indonesian government.
A student activist while studying at the department of physics at the Bandung Institute of Technology, Rizal was jailed for one year in 1978 for leading a protest rally against the reelection of then president Soeharto.
After gaining a Ph.D in economics from Boston University in the United States in 1990, he worked mostly as a consultant for private organizations and companies through his economic research agency, Econit, until his appointment as the chief of the National Logistics Agency in April.
Known as a close confidant of Abdurrahman, Rizal served as a consultant for the Texmaco Group last October soon after the widely-diversified conglomerate was embroiled in a nation-wide controversy and faced charges of corruption in connection with the alleged abuse of US$1.3 billion in government loans it obtained on the back of a strong recommendation from then president Soeharto.
Minister of Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy Surjadi Sudirdja retains his post with the added responsibility of overseeing the anticipated implementation of regional autonomy.
An Army career man, Surjadi's last rank was lieutenant general. But most Jakartans will likely remember Surjadi as the city's governor between 1992 and 1997, and Greater Jakarta military commander in 1988.
Surjadi has built a reputation as a strict bureaucrat, not afraid to take action against fraudulent city officials during his term as governor.
Born in Serang, West Java on Oct. 11, 1938, Surjadi is married to Sri Soemarsih. They have two boys.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab is another "old" face in the reshuffled Cabinet.
From the beginning there had been some speculation that he would be replaced as he is known as a close confidant of President Abudurrahman Wahid.
Relatively new on the political scene, Alwi was a strong candidate to challenge Matori Abdul Djalil as National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman during the party congress in July. But his campaign flopped as Abdurrahman, who helped found the party, decided to retain Matori.
It is not surprising that Abdurrahman would choose someone close and like-minded as foreign minister, particularly since the President has said he would concentrate more on foreign affairs and has pledged to task the daily chores of government to the vice-president.
However before assuming the prestigious mantle of foreign minister Alwi was regarded as a novice in the field.
Alwi was previously better known as a moderate Muslim intellectual who also had a brief stint teaching Islamic studies at Harvard University.
Born on Aug. 19, 1946 in Rappang, South Sulawesi, he obtained a doctorate in Islamic philosophy from the University of Ains Shams, both in Cairo.
Alwi's elder brother, Quraish Shihab, was minister of religious affairs in former president Soeharto's last cabinet.
Alwi is married to Ashraf Shahab and has two children.
The selection of Mahfud MD as minister of defense was probably one of the biggest surprises in the Cabinet shakeup.
The "MD" does not stand for 'medical doctor', but a popular acronym for his full name Mohammad Mahfud Mahmodin.
He built a name for himself as a brilliant academic and a professor of state administration at the Indonesian Islamic University in Yogyakarta where he spent most of his scholastic career.
He received a doctorate for legal studies from Gadjah Mada University in 1993.
In recent years he has been a political and social commentator, but maybe due to his domicile he has not yet gained nation-wide recognition.
What makes his appointment even more surprising to the key post of minister of defense is that he is not known for being affiliated with any political grouping.
He takes over the ministry from the popular and well-liked Juwono Sudarsono who became the first civilian to lead the department since the 1950s.
Many will be looking to Mahfud to continue the revamping of the military administration which Juwono has begun.
A Madurese, Mahfud, 43, is married to Zaizatun Nihayati, 41. They have two sons and a girl.
His last official government position was as an expert staff member at the State Ministry of Human Rights Affairs.
Minister of Finance Prijadi Praptosuhardjo is perhaps the most controversial appointee in the Cabinet due to his failure in April to pass a "fit-and-proper" test by the central bank for the presidency of the Bank Rakyat Indonesia.
It would not be too much to say that his appointment is due to his close acquaintance to President Abdurrahman Wahid who claims that Prijadi was the conceptor of the micro-credit program.
Despite failing the test, the President was adamant another test be conducted to qualify him for the top slot at the bank. But central bank's Governor Sjahril Sabirin at the time did not budge.
Prijadi's failure of the central bank's test had reportedly worsened Abdurrahman's relations with Sjahril who is now under detention at the Attorney General's Office over charges of corruption in connection with the Bank Bali scandal.
Prijadi graduated from the fisheries department of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, started his career at state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia in 1968.
Born in Klaten, Central Java, in 1939, Prijadi was formerly a director of state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia.
Minister of Religious Affairs Tolchah Hasan retains his post. A Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) family man who previously held the post of Rois Syariah, or law making body, in the country's largest Muslim organization.
Born on Oct. 10, 1936 in Tuban, East Java, he was in the past also active in the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) which was headed for many years by former president B.J. Habibie.
Tolchah is married to Sholichah Noor and has three children.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bungaran Saragih was a lecturer at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) and a well- known commentator on agricultural issues.
Born on April 17, 1945 in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra, he studied agricultural economy at the IPB and then pursued his studies at North Carolina State University where he obtained a doctoral degree in economics in 1980.
He is officially a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle but has not held a core executive position.
Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin retains his post in the new Cabinet.
The former dean of the political and social affairs department at Gadjah Mada University was education attache at the Indonesian Embassy in the United States before being called home in October to assume his Cabinet post.
Born in Bumiayu, Central Java, on May 17, 1943, Yahya earned a doctorate degree in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982.
Yahya is known to be a close friend of People's Consultative Assembly Speaker and National Mandate Party chairman Amien Rais as they were both lecturers at Gadjah Mada.
Yahya is married to Choifah and has three daughters and one son.
Minister of Health Ahmad Suyudi is another one of those who survived the reshuffle. Not surprising, however, as few can claim to know the ministry as well as he does.
Ahmad has built a career in the ministry which goes back three decades.
He was Director General of Contagious Diseases and Settlement Environmental Sanitation before being appointed to head the ministry in October.
Born in Bondowoso, East Java, on April 11, 1941, he graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Indonesia, 1972.
He earned a masters degree from the School of Health Services Management, at the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 1990.
Agum Gumelar retains his post as minister of communications in the new Cabinet.
Born on Aug. 1, 1945 in Tasikmalaya, Agum is a retired lieutenant-general who has occupied several strategic posts during his military career, including commander of the Army's Special Forces.
He was governor of the National Resilience Institute, a military think-tank, before being appointed minister last year.
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Al Hilal Hamdi takes over the merged portfolio of the ministry of manpower and the state ministry of transmigration and population.
Hilal was the previous minister to the latter department.
Formerly deputy secretary general of the National Mandate Party (PAN), his inclusion in the Cabinet lineup is seen by many as representing the Axis Force.
A mining engineer who specialized in oil exploration, Hilal graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1980. He ran his own business before he joined state-owned electricity firm PLN two years ago as an energy consultant.
Born on March 28, 1954 in Cilacap, Central Java, Hilal married Usdiati Endah Purwati, and they have raised three children.
It remains to be seen how he will navigate the two particular issues of transmigration and manpower, particularly the latter as the plight of Indonesian laborers both at home and overseas is rising on the nation's agenda.
Luhut Binsar Panjaitan retains his post as minister of industry and trade which he was appointed to in April in replacement of Yusuf Kalla who was axed by the President.
A career militaryman, Luhut was previously Indonesian ambassador to Singapore. His previous rank was lieutenant- general.
The father of four obtained a masters degree in public policy from George Washington University.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro is deputy governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), a military think-tank.
Purnomo has ample experience in the country's energy industry and previously assumed several posts at the ministry along with the state oil and gas company Pertamina.
He was an expert staff member on oil affairs to former minister of mines and energy I.B. Sudjana before taking over the post at Lemhanas in 1998.
Born on June 16, 1951 in Semarang, Purnomo graduated from the prestigious Institute Technology of Bandung's (ITB) School of Oil, where he received a scholarship from oil company Total Indonesie.
He then pursued his studies at the Colorado School of Mines where he obtained a doctoral degree. He took a brief teaching job at the university, before deciding to return to Indonesia.
The father of two replaces Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the ministry.
Minister of Law and Human Rights Affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra is an academic turned politician who began to grab attention in the latter years of Soeharto's presidency working as a speech writer at the State Secretariate.
He formally entered politics after the fall of the New Order to establish and head the Crescent Star Party which ended up with 13 seats in the House of Representative.
He shot to further fame during his role in the October General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly, as many of his legal opinions helped the Assembly avoid constitutional flaws.
Born in on Feb. 5, 1956, Yusril graduated from the School of Law and School of Letters at the University of Indonesia. Yusril completed a master's degree in law and Islamic knowledge at the same university. He earned his doctorate from the University Sains in Penang, Malaysia in 1992.
He is married to Sukaesih and has a daughter.
Minister of Housing and Regional Development Erna Witolear is one of two women in the Cabinet, both of whom are survivors from the previous Cabinet.
She was part of the three-member team which helped draft the Cabinet structure.
Wife of former Golkar Secretary General and Indonesian ambassador to Russia, Rachmat Witular, Erna was widely recognized as an environmental activist.
Born in Sengkang, South Sulawesi on Feb. 6, 1947, Erna chaired the Consumers Protection Agency between 1986 and 1989.
Minister of Tourism and Culture I Gede Ardika, who was the ministry's deputy for Tourism Product Development on his appointment, spent most of his career in the tourism industry and the ministry after graduating from the Arts School of the prestigious Institute Technology of Bandung.
He pursued his studies in hotel management at the Glion, Swiss International Institute.
Born on Feb. 15, 1945 in Buleleng, Bali, Ardika has two children.
Ardika replaces Hidayat Djaelani.
Minister of Maritime Exploration Sarwono Kusumaatmadja is one of the few individuals to have served under the Soeharto presidency and is a former secretary-general of Golkar. However his name is not closely associated with the former ruling political party.
In fact he was known as quite a vocal critic of the party.
Born on July 24, 1943. He graduated from Bandung Institute of Technology's Civil Technical School in 1974.
State Minister for Women's Affairs Khofifah Indar Parawansa retains her post.
She first began to grab attention as an outspoken legislator in the House of Representatives as a representative of the United Development Party in the mid-1990s.
But her allegiance lies with Nahdlatul Ulama and she is a noted figure in the National Awakening Party.
Born in Surabaya on May 15, 1965, she is the youngest member of the Cabinet.
Khofifah attributes her political career to her deep involvement in student activities when she studied at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the Airlangga University in her hometown. She was an executive of the Indonesian Muslim Student Movement until she graduated in 1990.
Married to Indar Parawansa, a civil servant at the Agency for Environmental Control in Makassar, Khofifah has one daughter and two sons.
State Minister for Administrative Reform Ryaas Rasyid has to relinquish his former post as minister for regional autonomy which has been merged with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Before his Cabinet posting in October, Ryaas was director general of the general administrative and regional autonomy section of the home affairs ministry.
Born in Dec. 7, 1949 in Gowa, South Sulawesi, Ryaas is a noted legal expert and former rector of the State Institute for Public Administration.
He began his career in bureaucracy as a subdistrict chief in Melayu, Makassar and the capital Ujungpandang.
He received his master's degree in politics and public administration at the Northern Illinois University in the United States in 1988, and his PhD from the University of Hawaii.
State Minister of Cooperatives Zarkasih Nur is another returnee from the previuos Cabinet.
Born on April 21, 1940, in Ciputat, South Jakarta, Zarkasih received most of his education in Islamic schools.
He was a central figure in the United Development Party (PPP) and headed the party's faction at the House before becoming a minister.
State Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf was born in Flores in East Nusa Tenggara on June 1, 1958. A lecturer at Atma Jaya Catholic University since 1988, Sonny headed the ethics development center at the university until earlier this year.
Graduating from Drijarkara School of Philosophy in 1988, Sonny took his doctorate at the Higher Institute of Philosophy Catholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium with a thesis on business ethics in the free market in 1995. He also took a master's degree from the same university in 1992.
A father of three children, Sonny worked as an editor for Jakarta-based book publisher Obor between 1985 and 1988 and has attended a number of seminars.
He retains his post in the Cabinet.
State Minister of Research and Technology Muhammad Athoillah Sohibul Hikam personally admits that while he is known as a good friend of the Abdurrahman Wahid, he has rarely been able to meet the President since being appointed to the Cabinet in October.
Nevertheless his name apparently is still high in the President's mind as he has been again charged with heading the department which had become so synonymous with former president B.J. Habibie.
Hikam was previously known as a senior researcher at the state National Institute of Science (LIPI). Unlike pure scientists who adopt a 'value-free' stance for the sake of impartiality, Hikam opted to side with the proreform movement and become a government critic.
He repeatedly expressed his support for Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, and prior to the presidential election earlier this month he joined a group of LIPI researchers in rejecting the nomination of former president B.J. Habibie.
Born in Tuban, East Java, a stronghold of Nahdlatul Ulama, on April 26, 1958, he graduated from the School of Letters at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in 1981. Six years later he took a master's degree in mass communication at the University of Hawaii, where he also earned his master's and doctorate in politics in 1994 and 1995 respectively.
Hikam is married to Pudji Winarni. They have a daughter.
Former minister of forestry and plantations Nurmahmudi Ismail has become junior minister of forestry in the new Cabinet.
Ismail, who was born in Kediri, Central Java, is the co- founder and chairman of the Justice Party (PK).
A father of three, Machmudi graduated from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture in 1984 and received his doctorate in animal husbandry from Texas A & M in the United States.
His party joined Amien Rais' National Mandate Party to form the Reform faction in the People's Consultative Assembly.
Manuel Kaisiepo is charged with taking up the new office of junior minister for the acceleration for the development of eastern Indonesia which will be attached to the Coordinating Ministry for Political Affairs, Welfare and Security.
He started out his career as a journalist and in recent years is better known as a columnist in Kompas daily.
Born on Christmas Day 1953 in Biak, Irian Jaya, Manuel is married to Erna Riswati and has three children.
Junior Minister for the Reconstruction of the National Economy Cacuk Sudarijanto, who was born on Jan.29, 1948.
He was a director of USI/IBM computer company until 1980 when he moved to state-owned PT Indosat as director and then served as the president of state-owned PT Telkom between 1988 and 1992.
His official curriculum vitae does not mention much about his educational background, except short executive courses at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1984 and at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston, U.S.
After quitting PT Telkom in 1992, reportedly over his disagreement with then president Soeharto about the awarding of some telecommunications contracts, he served as president of a small private bank, Bank Mega.
Under the Habibie administration, Cacuk served as director general for small and medium-scale enterprises until late 1999 when he was appointed by President Abdurrahman as deputy chairman of IBRA and later in January as chairman of the same agency. (team)