Brief profiles of members of the 'Gotong Royong' Cabinet

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono only shot to fame recently, though many had rightly expected him to return to the forefront of the national political scene.

Susilo first entered the Cabinet as minister of mines and energy in Oct. 1999 under the government of then president Abdurrahman Wahid.

Not long afterwards, he became Abdurrahman's top political security minister. But as controversy continued and differences grew, Susilo withdrew himself from the government, after being replaced as coordinating minister for political, social and security affairs.

During the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly Susilo was one of the candidates for the vice presidency, which was eventually won by Hamzah Haz.

Previously, Susilo had pursued a distinguished military career that began in 1973 after graduating as a top graduate from the Armed Forces Academy.

Born in Pacitan, East Java, on Sept. 9, 1949, Susilo's education included attending the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1991 and graduating with a master of arts degree in management from Webster University.

His last military post was as Armed Forces chief of territorial affairs from 1998 to 1999. Upon his retirement, he was accorded the rank of honorary general.

He is married to Kristiani Herawati and has two children.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro- Jakti is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Dorodjatun received two degrees from the institution, a master's degree in public administration in 1966 and then a doctorate in political science in 1980.

Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to Washington in 1998, he had established a name as an economist and was dean of the University of Indonesia's School of Economy.

Most of his career has been related to academic circles. Married to Emiwaty, he has three children.

He was born in Rangkasbitung, West Java.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla is one of several ministers making a return to the Cabinet after previously being sacked by former president Abdurrahman Wahid.

The native of Watampone remains very popular in his home province of South Sulawesi, was previously minister of industry and trade.

A 59-year-old graduate of Hasanuddin University, Jusuf is known as one of the most successful and respected businessmen from eastern Indonesia.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno is known as an affable character to journalists covering the political beat. Hari is a representative of the TNI/National Police faction at the MPR/DPR.

Known to be eloquent, without being boisterously outspoken, Hari will be 57 on Sunday.

Officially still an active officer, Hari holds the rank of lieutenant general. He is married to Dewi Margawati with two children.

Minister of Foreign Affairs N. Hassan Wirayuda, raised within the ranks of the foreign ministry, Hasan is expected to be a popular choice among Indonesian diplomats who hope he will continue to act with a high level of discernment, which has been the trademark of Indonesian diplomacy.

While his name had not hit the headlines until he became the government's representative in talks with Aceh separatist rebels in Geneva, many predicted early on that the graduate of Harvard University Law School and Tufts University would be one of the country's leading diplomats.

His foreign assignments at the ministry include postings as ambassador in Cairo, Egypt and permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

Born in Tangerang, West Java, on July 9, 1948, Hassan's last position was the ministry's director general for political affairs.

Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil is undoubtedly one of the most controversial names to be included in the Cabinet.

Many believe the MPR deputy speaker's appointment was influenced by his display of loyalty to Megawati during the MPR Special Session by defying his own party's orders to boycott the meeting, which eventually dismissed Abdurrahman and appointed Megawati as president.

Matori has since been sacked by the National Awakening Party (PKB), which he chaired.

Developments have proven that he is an astute politician who knows how to survive.

Matori, prior to the establishment of PKB in 1998, was a member of the United Development Party and even served as its secretary-general from 1989 to 1994.

Several people may wonder if Matori has sufficient knowledge and experience in the field of defense, but Megawati's decision may be based on her sense of trust toward the political sacrifice made by Matori.

Born in Salatiga, Central Java, on July 11, 1942, Matori graduated from Satya Wacana Christian University with a degree in economics.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra has come a long way from his days as law professor and state secretariat special staff member under then president Soeharto.

It is the second coming for Yusril, 45, who was sacked from the very same post four months ago.

It is largely due to Yusril that the small Crescent Star Party that he chairs continues to receive national attention. The party is closely allied with Islam, claiming to take over the banner of the famed Masyumi Party of the 1950s.

Born in Belitung, South Sumatra, Yusril's educational background consists of a hodgepodge of schools. He studied both constitutional law and philosophy at the University of Indonesia and then studied humanities and social science at Punjab University. He received a doctorate degree from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 1993.

Minister of Finance Boediono is a highly respected economist from the prestigious University of Gadjah Mada, and this appointment marks his return to the Cabinet.

Boediono is undoubtedly going to be one of the key ministers on whom Indonesians are pinning their hopes for the recovery of the country's tattered economy.

He has had a highly varied career in the world of economics, ranging from the Central Bureau of Census and Statistics in Australia to Bank of America in Jakarta and from lecturer of economics at Gadjah Mada University to Bank Indonesia director in the late 1990s before served as State Minister for National Planning and Development (Bappenas) under Habibie from May 1998 to October 1999.

Boediono has written extensively in the local and overseas media and has also written text books on economic theory, monetary policy and operations research.

His applied research experience includes handicraft export development, labor absorption in the industrial sector as well as industrial estates in Cilacap and Yogyakarta.

Born in the East Java town of Blitar on Feb. 25, 1943, Boediono is married to Herawati and has two children.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro suits the portfolio as far as educational background and professional experience are concerned. He obtained his PhD in natural resource economics at the University of Colorado in the USA in 1988.

Born in Semarang on June 16, 1951, Purnomo was an expert staff member with the Basic Earth Science System in Colorado. He led a study on national energy pricing policy as part of cooperation with the mining and energy ministry. He is founder of the Institute for Energy Economics.

Purnomo was a consultant for the World Bank (1990-1992) and the Asian Development Bank (1990) before he was appointed advisor to the minister of mines and energy. He also once served as deputy chairman of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas).

Minister of Trade and Industry Rini Soewandi is the archetype of an Indonesian woman professional executive par excellence. She has long been identified with PT Astra International, Indonesia's leading automotive producer, in which she served as president director up to February 2000.

She started her career at Citibank before moving to Astra in 1988. Rini is known to talk straight thanks to her educational background in the West, first in the Netherlands and then the United States.

Prior to this appointment, Rini had a stint in the government bureaucracy when she became secretary, later deputy chairman, to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (BPPN) in April 1998 and a specialist with the Finance Minister from late 1997 to May 1998.

At present, Rini is in the process of realizing her ambition to become a motorcycle producer, with her Kanzen motorcycle plant currently under construction.

Born in Maryland, United States, on June 9, 1958, Rini, who graduated from Wellesly College's faculty of economics in Massachusetts in 1981, is married to Didik Soewandi, a businessman, and has two children.

The dominant part of her career has always been in finance, starting with the U.S. Finance Department before returning home in Jakarta with Citibank.

Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih is an academic who, like Achmad Sujudi, is widely respected in his field and is one of the figures to be retained by Megawati. Bungaran is a professor of agricultural economics at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB).

Born in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra, April 17, 1945, Bungaran received his undergraduate degree at IPB and his doctorate in economics at North Carolina State University in 1977.

Minister of Forestry Mohamad Prakosa is one of former president Abdurrahman Wahid's ministers who has stayed in the Cabinet, albeit having switched portfolio from agriculture to forestry.

Forestry is in fact his field of expertise as he graduated from the school of forestry at the University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta.

When his name was first appointed a minister in Wahid's Cabinet, he said he had never expected to become a minister. This time around, he might have been experienced a second pleasant surprise.

Prior to becoming a minister, Prakosa was a deputy representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Later, Prakosa continued his studies at Tennessee University where he obtained his master's degree, while he received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, both of which universities are in the United States.

A member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, Prakosa, who was born in Yogyakarta on March 4, 1960, is married to Sri Agustini and has three children.

Minister of Transportation Agum Gumelar is widely thought of as the man who, as coordinating minister for political, social and security affairs, stood up to Abdurrahman in the wee hours of July 23 and rejected the order to impose a state of emergency.

Born in Tasikmalaya, West Java, the 55-year-old retired Army honorary general was first ushered into the Cabinet by Abdurrahman as minister of communications.

After graduating from the military academy in 1968, Agum served in a number of military posts, including tours in East Timor and Aceh.

He served in the intelligence unit at the Army Special Forces for three years and later at the Jakarta Military Command.

He also served as governor of the National Resilience Institute.

He and his wife Linda have two children.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rokhmin Dahuri was picked by former president Abdurrahman Wahid to serve as minister of maritime affairs and fisheries, replacing Sarwono Kusumaatmadja. President Megawati has retained him in the post so that he will be able to continue pursuing his programs.

Rokhmin, who was born in Cirebon, West Java, on Nov. 16, 1958, is a professional and an expert on maritime affairs. He received a Phd in environmental sciences from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, with his dissertation being titled An Optimazation Model for Coastal Resource Utilization in East Kalimantan Coastal Zone 1991.

Graduated from the school of fisheries of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) in 1981, he is also a member of the board of editors of Coastal Management in Tropical Asia Newsletter, which is published by the Coastal Resource Center, University of Rhode Island, the U.S. He is also a member of the Ministry of the Environment's coastal development team.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea is a long time workers' rights activist. Jacob now has the chance to "put money where his mouth is".

Though he has served as an executive in several companies throughout the 1980s and 1990s, among them as manager of PT Cipta Panel Utama and assistant director of PT Lor Intoserve, it is primarily in the labor field that he is best known.

He began his activism in the late 1960s as a branch chairman of the Marhaenis Labor Movement.

Jacob, 57, admits that his own experience as a "laborer" with PT Indomilk in the early 1970s prompted his sense of commitment to fight for workers' rights.

The Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, native stood behind Muchtar Pakpahan during the 1980s in the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union, which at the time was hounded by the New Order regime.

A long member of the Indonesian Democratic Party, which then became PDI Perjuangan, Jacob currently heads the All-Indonesian Workers Union Federation.

Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno is little-known. Born in the Central Java town of Purwodadi on May 19, 1942, the father of four has spent his whole career in the public works sector. His latest position was director general of water resources development.

Minister of Health Achmad Suyudi is one of the ministers to have retained his position. Achmad had been one of the ministers under the Abdurrahman administration known to be relatively free from controversy.

The nature of his field of responsibility allowed him to focus on his tough job while political turmoil was taking place.

The East Java native rose from the ranks of bureaucracy, and has admitted that he focuses more on health management than therapy.

A graduate of the University of Indonesia, Achmad served as the director of Bengkulu Hospital during the 1908s and later at the Sardjito Hospital in Yogyakarta during the mid-1990s.

He was director general on the prevention of contagious diseases at the Ministry of Health before being appointed minister in 1999.

Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar can not be separated with the Muhammadiyah Muslim organization, which the 62 year old has been associated with throughout his life.

His experience in the Cabinet as minister of religious affairs under both Soeharto and B.J. Habibie has given him an insiders view of the two presidents.

The fact that he will now serve under a third president shows the kind of standing he has earned and not just from within Muhammadiyah circles.

Apart from an education at Sunan Ampel State Academy of Islamic Studies, he has also studied at Florida State University.

While most of career has been in the academic field, including a stint as rector of Muhammadiyah University, both in Malang and Surakarta.

Prior to his first stint as minister, the Yogyakarta native was director general for Islamic institutions at the ministry.

Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah is a member of the House of Representatives from the United Development Party. He is also deputy secretary general of the party under the leadership of Hamzah Haz, who has now been appointed Vice President.

Born in Sigli, Aceh, on Dec 31, 1945, he graduated from Medan Area University's school of economics in Medan, North Sumatra, in 1997. He is married with three children.

Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agiel Munawar is known as a preacher from Nahdlatul Ulama. Said spent the past few years primarily teaching at the State Academy of Islamic Studies.

Not too well known on the political scene, he has also served in the lawmaking body of the Indonesian Ulemas Council.

Born in Palembang, on Jan. 26, 1954, he completed his postgraduate studies at the Islamic University in Madinah and then received a doctorate degree from Ummul Quro University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika is seasoned in tourism issues. He graduated from the National College of Hotel Management in Bandung in 1967 and from the International Institute of Hotel Management in Switzerland in 1972.

From 1993 to 1996, he was chief of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications' training center. He was secretary to the ministry's director general of tourism from 1996 to 1998.

A native of Bali, he was born in Buleleng on Feb. 15, 1945 and is married to Indriati, with whom he has two children.

After two years of attending the Bandung Institute of Technology's art school, in 1964 he won a scholarship to the state Hotel Management College in Bandung. He claims he was interested in attending the college because it was free and all students were bound by contract to work for the government.

Minister of Research and Technology M. Hatta Radjasa is a secretary-general of the National Mandate Party, a member of House of Representatives Commission VIII for environmental, science and technological affairs and a member of the working group of the People's Consultative Assembly.

He was born in Palembang on Dec. 18, 1953 and graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1981. He then joined oil company Medco, owned by Arifin Panigoro of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. One year later he, with a number of friends, set up a mining consultancy with Rp 1,000,000 (about US$1,000 at the time).

A golf enthusiast, Hatta is married with four children.

State Ministers

Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Alimarwan Hanan is a politician and secretary-general of the United Development Party.

He began his political career in 1978 in South Sumatra as a member of the Association of Islamic Students (HMI) and the Indonesian National Youth Committee (KNPI).

Alimarwan, who was born on March 12, 1947 in Ulu Danau, South Sumatra and is married with one child, became the vice chairman of provincial councillors in South Sumatra.

Graduated from Sriwijaya University's School of Law in 1984, he is also a member of the House of Representatives.

Minister of Environment Nabiel Makarim is an old hand at environmental issues, having previous worked at the ministry of development and environmental supervision.

In 1989 he became an assistant to the minister of development and environmental supervision and was later deputy chairman of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bappedal).

Born in Surakarta, Central Java, in November 1945, Makarim obtained his master's degree in public administration and international trade from Harvard University. He also obtained his master's in management from Sloan School of Management in 1986. He attended the Bandung Institute of Technology's School of Mining but did not complete the course.

Makarim is married with two children.

Minister of Women's Empowerment Sri Redjeki Soemaryoto has six times represented Golkar in the House of Representatives since 1977.

Born in Surakarta, Central Java, on Oct. 10, 1950, Sri graduated from the University of Indonesia's School of Law in 1973. She is married with one child.

She chaired the department of women's affairs in Golkar. She is also the chairwoman of the Association of Working Women which is affiliated with Golkar.

From 1974 to 1982 she was an employee of PT Kemfoods and from 1989 to 1991 a member of the Film Censorship Board (BSF).

Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin is former secretary-general of the General Elections Institute, which became the Committee for General Elections in 1999.

He spent most of his career as a civil servant at the Ministry of Home Affairs from 1978. His latest position at the ministry was secretary-general.

He was born in Dompu, Sumbawa, on June 15, 1941.

Minister of the Development of Eastern Indonesia Manuel Kaisiepo has retained the post he held during president Abdurrahman's administration.

Kaisiepo is a researcher of the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and a prolific writer on social and cultural issues.

Married with three children, he has worked as journalist of Indonesia's largest newspaper, Kompas, since 1993.

He was born in Biak, Irian Jaya, on Dec. 25, 1952 and graduated from the National University's School of Political Science in Jakarta in 1979.

Minister/National Development Planning Board chairman Kwik Kian Gie is the deputy chairman of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and a deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly.

He was chosen by president Abdurrahman Wahid as coordinating minister for the economy, finance and industry in October 1999, but later resigned.

The father of three was born on Jan. 11, 1935, in Juwana, Central Java.

Kwik, who graduated from the Netherlandsche Economische Hogeschool, Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1963, is also a well- known columnist.

Between 1971 and the late 1980s, Kwik worked for various financial and manufacturing firms before founding the Indonesian Business Institute (IBI).

Minister of State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi is a vice chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

He was the minister of investment and state enterprises during the administration of president Abdurrahman Wahid, who later fired him.

Born on Oct. 1, 1956, Laksamana, a father of three, graduated from the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology in 1979.

In 1981, he entered the banking sector as an employee of Citibank. He later moved to Bank Umum Asia, which was owned by Mochtar Riady, the founder of the Lippo Group.

Laksamana was one of the architects behind the merger of Bank Umum Asia and Bank Lippo BPI in 1988, a merger which resulted in the formation of Lippo Bank.

He was the managing director of the Lippo Bank from 1988 to 1993, when he left the banking industry to lead a consulting firm and start a career in politics.

Minister of Information and Communications Syamsul Mu'arif is chairman of the Golkar faction in the House of Representatives.

Born in Kandangan, Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan on Dec. 8, 1948, Syamsul has a bachelor's degree from Banjarmasin's State Academy of Islamic Studies.

Married with six children, Syamsul has spent most of his career in politics since 1980 when he became the secretary- general of the KNPI.

State Secretary Bambang Kesowo started his career as a civil servant at the State Secretariat in 1968. His last position at the secretariat was chief of its legal bureau. He took up the post of deputy Cabinet secretary in 1993 and was still in the position in 1998 when authoritarian Soeharto was forced to quit.

During his career in the secretariat, he was said to be heavily involved in drafting government regulations and designing a number of national projects, including the controversial Timor national car project.

Married to Nurien Fatimah with three children, Bambang claims to have only met Megawati Soekarnoputri in person in September 1999, when someone from her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle contacted him to ask if he would become a private secretary to vice president Megawati.

Born in Sragen, East Java, on March 27, 1945, Bambang graduated from the School of Law at Yogyakarta's Gajah Mada University. He also has a Phd in business law from Harvard Law School in 1983.

National Intelligence Agency chief AM Hendropriyono has returned to the Cabinet in a strategic post. He was formerly minister of transmigration under the Soeharto administration.

The retired Army officer who attained the rank of lieutenant general admits that his new task is familiar ground.

Once an adjutant to Soeharto, Hendropriyono spent nearly half of his military career in intelligence, first with the Army's Special Force, then called Komando Pasukan Sandi Yudha (Kopassandha), and later as assistant for intelligence at the Jakarta Military Command. He was director of the Armed Forces Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS ABRI) from 1991 to 1993.

For all his charm, Hendropriyono can also be tough. He earned the notorious title the "Butcher of Lampung" after he crushed an alleged uprising by an Islamic sect in the province in 1989.

Some predicted he was in line for the Army's top job, especially after he became Jakarta Military commander in 1993. However he was removed a year later. He was sent to Bandung to head the Military Education and Training Command.

His appointment as head of the intelligence body gives Hendropriyono an important role again under the President.

Born in Yogyakarta on May 7, 1945, under the name of Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, he is married to Tuti Mulia and has three children.