SRI MULYANI: (JP/Arief Suhardiman)

Sri Mulyani Indrawati has assumed three different strategic ministerial posts since first entering government four years ago.

It's a new record for Indonesia's short list of women in power throughout history.

Although many disagree with her decisions and judgments, Mulyani has earned respect not only from her supporters but also from her critics for her integrity and desire to push for government reform.

Despite her achievements, she is still familiar to her friends and acquaintances, except now they may not be able to spend as much time with her as before.

"She still remembered me and invited me to a dinner where she introduced me to her children. She told them, *This is Mbah kakung' (a polite Javanese term for an elderly man)," said YB Kasmani, Mulyani's former homeroom teacher from SMA 3 Semarang, remembering their first meeting since Mulyani graduated from the school in 1981.

"Even at the school reunion last year, she was relaxed with her friends, even though she was a minister. Her parents have taught her well," Kasmani, who still teaches at the school, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Mulyani, 46, comes from an intellectual family. Her late father, Satmoko, was a lecturer at a state university in Semarang.

"Modesty has been with her since her school days," said Sri Adiningsih, a well-known economist and lecturer from Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

The two women first met when they were studying at the University of Illinois, the United States, where Mulyani spent four years working for her master's degree and Ph.D.

"I picked her up from the airport and she stayed at my place for a couple of days before getting her own place. She still had her long curly hair," she told the Post.

"We were short of cash so we brought lunch from home and ate it together."

Their association grew deeper when they worked together during the reform era, following the 1997 Asian economic crisis, to push for economic reform in Indonesia. Together with 13 other young economists, including Mari Elka Pangestu (now trade minister), Miranda S Goeltom (now deputy governor of Bank Indonesia), and Anggito Abimanyu (now the Finance Ministry's head of fiscal policy), they presented the Declaration for Saving Indonesia's Economy.

Mulyani and Anggito later became the members of president Abdurrahman Wahid's economic advisory team. Wahid's presidency lasted less than a year and ended in July 2001 with the rise of president Megawati.

When rumors spread on Mulyani's candidacy in the new cabinet, she silenced them by heading to Atlanta, United States, to work as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development. In October 2002, she was appointed as the executive director of the International Monetary Fund to represent the Southeast Asian countries in its Washington DC headquarters.

Indonesia's next president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, came to power in October 2004 and managed to lure her back as the state minister for national development planning.

A year later, in 2005, during a cabinet reshuffle, Mulyani was made the head of the Finance Ministry.

"I think she is the best person in Indonesia to take up the job. Her studies focused on government finance," Sri Adiningsih said.

But some saw a rather shaky start to her switch -- from the intellectual world to her new arena in the administration and among politicians.

Alvien Lie, a member of the House of Representative Commission XI overseeing state finance, recalled when Mulyani was presented with the proposal for a fuel price hike in 2005 in front of the House.

"She had just taken the post as finance minister and was clearly having trouble communicating with the politicians. She was wary and rather suspicious of politicians," he said.

"In 2008, when she presented the case for another fuel hike, she was much more mature and confident. She also then had learnt to differentiate the opinions with political agenda from the unloaded ones."

Harry Azhar Azis, another Commission XI member, said she had become used to the environment.

"I saw a change in her when she entered the political field from her previously academic world. Her intellectual side persisted but she needed to make compromises because of political pressure," he said.

An example of this, he said, was the targets she set for year 2009's economic performance. Her targets depicted a brighter picture than what actually could be achieved.

Nevertheless, Azis praised Mulyani's intention and efforts to push for reform.

"She has made changes here and there. She is capable of pushing for change, but I think her push for reform is very much stalled by Indonesian bureaucracy."

Mulyani has attempted to reform the bureaucratic procedures in the ministry's two notoriously corrupt wings: the directorate general of tax, and customs and excise.

The project involves increasing salaries in both departments and replacing old faces with better paid, new professionals. Since July last year, the reform has cost the country Rp 4.3 trillion.

But Mulanyi's effort has come under fierce attack as officers in Tanjong Priok customs office were caught red-handed with Rp 500 million (US$54,000) in bribery cash. The raid by the Corruption Eradication Committee itself was done in late May after the approval from the Finance Ministry.

Mulyani told the press after the raid that raising remuneration solely was apparently insufficient to wipe out graft. She believed intense internal monitoring and enforcement of ethics and discipline among officials were vital.

"We cannot expect this to change overnight. Changing chronic habits is a long process," she said at the time.

Mulyani was appointed the acting coordinating minister for economic affairs last week, replacing Boediono who left to take up the post of governor of Bank Indonesia.

Harry said she had the chance to fulfill the new role well if she could adapt quickly to the bureaucratic culture.

"Our bureaucracy is similar to Japan's ... seniority weighs heavily in determining compliance. She is young and has to work with more senior ministers but she has a good chance to succeed," he said.

Alvien commented that the job was familiar to her.

"She conducted ministerial coordination during the budget cut before the fuel hike," he said.

"We had disagreements because of our different interests. But as finance minister she is doing a good job not only technically but also on political decisions. She is one of the few who dares to say 'No'." (mri)

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