Soeharto unveils cabinet today

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto is expected to announce the lineup of the new cabinet this morning, a presidential household official said yesterday.

M. Basyuni told reporters that the new ministers would be inducted by the President at the State Palace on Monday.

On Tuesday, Soeharto will preside over the new cabinet's inaugural meeting, Basyuni said in a short statement.

This will be the shortest time that Soeharto, appointed to his seventh term in office on Wednesday, has taken to put together his cabinet. In the past, he has waited at least a week to appoint the cabinet after his election by the People's Consultative Assembly.

Informed sources said Soeharto began approaching some of the figures he intends to pick before his March 11 swearing in as president.

Soeharto faces pressures from two fronts in naming the cabinet.

On the one hand, the deepening economic crisis has added to the urgency for him to form his team, expected to be called the Seventh Development Cabinet, quickly.

There is, for example, the expected arrival of a team from the International Monetary Fund this weekend to discuss the disbursement of $3 billion in fresh loans. The discussion had been delayed pending the formation of the new government.

On the other hand, there have been strong calls from politicians for the President to move cautiously, saying that he should delve into the intended ministers' backgrounds, looking not only at their professional qualities but also their moral integrity.

The calls are part of what has become a year-long chorus for good governance and clean government.

Many people feel that the last cabinet was the worst since Soeharto formed his first of six previous administrations in 1968. In giving the thumbs down to the Sixth Development Cabinet, politicians and analysts underscored poor coordination and a lack of ministerial accountability among its greatest shortcomings.

In the past week, many lists purporting to be the cabinet lineup have circulated, exchanged and swapped through faxes, e- mails and over lunch, dinner or at receptions. Some of these lists looked credible, and others bizarre, but they were all nothing more than speculation in the absence of any official explanation.

By yesterday, however, some of these lists had converged so much that one Jakarta newspaper even printed the members' photos.

Some of the names that were on the most talked-about list had also confirmed that they had been contacted by the President and asked to join the cabinet.

Some of them have even invited reporters over to their houses this morning to be present when the announcement is made. Others distributed their resums to make the journalists' job easier.

But leading sociologist Loekman Sutrisno gave the thumbs down to the list even before its announcement. He said yesterday, that it did not conform to the people's demands for clean government and the abolition of business monopolies.

"Going through the names, I think the people and the market will find it hard to trust some of them," Loekman told reporters in Yogyakarta.

Besides the names, politicians and analysts also speculated about the strength of various political factions' or individuals' influence over Soeharto's decision.

While selecting the cabinet is the constitutional prerogative of the president, Soeharto has consulted powerful political figures or institutions in the past.

Golkar Chairman and House of Representatives Speaker Harmoko yesterday said that although he was not asked by the President to submit names, Golkar had prepared a list of its cadres it deemed fit to join the cabinet.

"If Soeharto felt that these cadres were capable, he would obviously have contacted them directly. He does not have to consult Golkar," Harmoko told reporters.

Besides the Golkar Central Executive Board, the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI), headed by now Vice President B.J. Habibie, is also often touted as another camp with influence over the President.

ICMI's head of cultural development, Nasir Tamara, however, said that the organization was not a political lobby group. "The most important thing (to ICMI) is that a minister should be wise, fair, honest and ready to defend the nation's interests," Nasir said. (prb/emb/imn/23)