Some will go but some stay. That was what President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during a farewell party with Vice President Jusuf Kalla and his outgoing ministers at the Presidential Palace on Friday.

During the party,  Yudhoyono explained that he would retain only a few of his Cabinet members for his next period of office, that would see many new faces coming in.

“I ask for your understanding. A few of you will still join the next Cabinet but most [of you] will be in other fields of service,” he said.

Yudhoyono also praised Kalla — whom he defeated in the July presidential election — for his services.

“I had a chat with him [Kalla] before the event began. I am glad after he told me he would conti-
nue his services to the country and nation.”During the party, Yudhoyono sat at the same table with First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, Kalla and wife Mufidah Kalla and vice president-elect Boediono and wife Herawati.

He said Kalla has planned to, among others, be active in developing the country's eastern regions and renewable energy sources as well as to contribute to solutions in in the country's conflict areas.

“He said he would do everything he could for the nation and the country. Therefore, as a friend, I feel happy and will always pray for him so that he will achieve his goals,” Yudhoyono said.    

Yudhoyono and Boediono will be sworn in on Tuesday in a ceremony that will cost only Rp 300 million (US$30,600).

As for his new Cabinet members, dubbed as the Indonesia United Cabinet II, Yudhoyono has been contacting candidates in the past two days. He will announce the names a day after his inauguration.

Outgoing ministers showed different expressions during the party.

Communications and Information Minister Muhammad Nuh threw jokes at journalists, as did Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who might be one of the few retained by the President.

National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo and Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono did not speak much during the function. When asked if he had been offered another term in the Cabinet, Anton said he had not received any calls from the President.

“My party has not submitted my name  [for a minister post] again,” said Anton, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Yudhoyono said his coalition of political parties — comprising of the Democratic Party, the PKS, the National Mandate Party, the United Development Party, the National Awakening Party and recently the Golkar Party — has submitted different names for possible ministerial posts.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has hinted at a coalition but Yudhoyono has yet to respond to this. PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri — who lost to Yudhoyono twice in the 2004 and 2009 presidential elections — has preferred to stay as an opposition leader, although her husband Taufik Kiemas was recently named as the People's Consultative Assembly speaker.

Taufik had earlier met with Yudhoyono to discuss the inauguration and promised that Megawati would attend the event.

As ministers began to say goodbye to each others, they all lined up at the Palace stairs for photo sessions to join Yudhoyono, Kalla and Boediono and their spouses.

The pictures, Yudhoyono said, would be memorabilia for them all.

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