Soeharto unveils cabinet today

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)