Mutual-help Cabinet

Mutual-help Cabinet

The one-week delay in the announcement of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's Cabinet turned out to be worth the wait, judging
from the integrity, professionalism and inclusiveness of her core
working team finally unveiled on Thursday morning.

The misgivings many had harbored in view of the intense
political jockeying and horse trading, turned out to be entirely
unfounded. The ministers Megawati selected for what she called a
gotong royong (mutual help) Cabinet, fully met market
expectations while still accommodating the competing interests of
major political parties to maintain a good rapport with the House
of Representatives.

The core economic team is comprised entirely of highly
professional technocrats of impeccable integrity, who the market,
including the International Monetary Fund and other international
creditors and investors, will feel very comfortable with.

Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-jakti, the new coordinating minister for
the economy, was dean of the Jakarta School of Economics at the
University of Indonesia before serving as Indonesian ambassador
to the United States, a posting he has just concluded with high
praise from diplomats and the mass media in Washington.

Another notable appointment is Boediono, a former central bank
deputy governor who joined the Cabinet of former president B.J.
Habibie as the chief national development planner. A low-profile,
but hard-working and highly respected technocrat within and
outside the country, Boediono will lend high credibility to the
Cabinet as he, like Dorodjatun, is non-partisan.

Since he has no political party affiliation, Boediono will
find it much easier to gain market and political acceptance,
which is crucial for his task as he is in charge of the most
pivotal elements of economic reform, which are vulnerable to
practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism.

As the minister of finance, Boediono is in charge of fiscal
management and overseeing the Indonesian Bank Restructuring
Agency (IBRA), which plays a crucial role in bank restructuring
and the recovery of about US$65 billion worth of distressed
assets acquired from closed and nationalized banks.

Laksamana Sukardi, a highly-respected former banker, returned
to his old position of state minister for state-owned companies
in former president Abdurrahman Wahid's first Cabinet. Like
Boediono, Laksamana's high integrity will greatly help his
credibility in overseeing around 160 state companies, which have
always been prone to corruption, collusion and nepotism.

Kwik Kian Gie, who was named chief of the National Development
Planning Board, was the chief economics minister in Abdurrahman's
first Cabinet. Kwik is a highly vocal, yet respected technocrat.
Though Kwik and Laksamana are leaders of Megawati's Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle, they command high market and
political acceptance as neither of them ever exhibited partisan
conduct during their previous stints in the Cabinet.

The appointment of Rini M.Soewandi, former chief executive
officer of publicly listed PT Astra International, will certainly
be thoroughly welcomed by the market. As a former senior
executive at Citibank Indonesia, Rini will bring to her post a
greatly valued treasure of well-rounded experience for pursuing
business-friendly policies.

It is a great comfort to note that Megawati, despite previous
apprehension that she might succumb to the political infighting,
has successfully passed the first big test of her leadership
abilities.

She asked for a little more time to be able to choose the
right people. That is precisely what she has delivered in her
first Cabinet. And most impressive is that her selections do not
reflect any preferential treatment for her own political party
interests.

The manner in which Megawati kept a tight lid on her
selections was a well-calculated move to stamp her authority over
the process.

In her introduction to the announcement of the Cabinet,
Megawati candidly described the most pressing problems facing the
nation in the economic, social, security and legal areas and
rightly set the top priorities for the Cabinet's working programs
to address those problems.

That clearly proves her complete understanding that a
carefully selected Cabinet was crucial for regaining market
confidence and maintaining the momentum of market optimism that
blossomed immediately after the end of Abdurrahman Wahid's
erratic style of leadership.