Cabinet to be 25-strong at the most: Gus Dur
JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid hinted on Friday that the number of ministers in the new cabinet would be reduced from the current 35 to a maximum of 25.
"There are thousands of resumes in my hands, but we only need about 25 (ministers). And it would be even better if the number could be less than that," Abdurrahman said after Friday prayers at Baiturrahman Mosque within the presidential palace compound.
Gus Dur, as the President is popularly called, reiterated that the final say over the structure and the lineup of the new Cabinet would remain in his hands.
"I am sorry to say that drawing up the lineup of the Cabinet is my prerogative as president," he said.
But he said that this weekend he would discuss the makeup of the Cabinet with Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri and a team of three ministers he had asked to assist him.
Sources at the House of Representatives (DPR), however, said that the meeting would also involve House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and Speaker of People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais.
The sources also said that several ministries would merge to form a more compact Cabinet, including the office of the Minister of Tourism and Arts with the Ministry of Communication; the office of the State Minister for Women's Affairs with the Ministry of National Education; and the office of State Minister of Regional Autonomy with Ministry of Home Affairs.
Abdurrahman said earlier that Minister of Mines and Energy Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, State Minister of Regional Autonomy Ryaas Rasyid and Minister of Settlement and Territorial Development Erna Witoelar had been assigned to draft the structure of the Cabinet.
"God willing, the lineup of the new Cabinet will be announced next Wednesday afternoon or next Friday at the latest," he said.
The lineup had initially been scheduled to be announced on Aug. 21, but the President postponed it as he needed more time to discuss it with Megawati and other political leaders.
Abdurrahman said earlier that 60 percent of the new Cabinet would consist of professionals, while the remaining 40 percent would be selected from candidates proposed by political parties.
He said, however, that those originating from political parties would also have to be "competent".
Legitimacy
Meanwhile, Akbar Tandjung said that besides being competent, members of the next Cabinet should also have "political legitimacy."
Akbar, who is also chairman of Golkar Party, defined the second requirement as meaning that prospective Cabinet ministers should have political roots in parties that won substantial votes in the last election.
But Akbar said that the final choice was the prerogative of the president.
"Golkar is not in the position to influence the policies of the President in determining the candidates for the new Cabinet," he said on the sidelines of a plenary session on the final day of the Annual Session of the MPR.
Abdurrahman has said that the decision-making power in the new Cabinet would reside in a group of four people -- the President, the Vice President and two coordinating ministers.
DPUN
Earlier in the day, chairman of the National Business Development Council (DPUN) Sofjan Wanandi said he welcomed the demands that several extra-Cabinet advisory boards be dissolved.
"If the councils are no longer needed because the next Cabinet ministers are good enough, it's fine," he said after a ceremony presenting a Bintang Mahaputra Utama Award to former Australian ambassador to Indonesian Richard Woolcott at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But he dismissed allegations that the councils had failed to live up to the people's expectations.
"We have worked as efficiently as possible along with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to help businesspeople recover," Sofjan said. (09/byg)