A Facebook friend named Dian Zulkarnain wrote, "It's not about the team but how they play the game." She was not discussing the Arsenal football team, but the brand-new Cabinet that was announced a few days ago. I think that is an apt comment. The Cabinet, like a football eleven, is a team, and teamwork makes the difference.
Although the endless discussion of personalities in the papers is compelling, and the parade of personalities makes for exciting shows on television, at the end of the day it is not the "Cikeas Idols" who will carry the day, but the synergy among the Cabinet members, and their synergy with the President, that will be the decisive element in our nation's future. The Cabinet must be more than the sum of its parts, i.e. the ministers.
It is time to adopt a rational perspective on the Cabinet and make less fuss over personal idiosyncrasies of individual ministers, as the nation would greatly benefit from a president who can respond to challenges and opportunities from the first week of the new government.
A point in case is the climate summit in Copenhagen in December, where Indonesia can honor President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's commitments and implement a moratorium on deforestation as part of his 100-day program.
There is also the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) conflict with the police, which should be defused by transparent measures. Many cases are far more important than appointments of individuals to the Cabinet.
To be sure, there are some interesting stories surrounding the Cabinet appointments that make for engaging morning news and tabloid gossip. And there are riveting personalities in whom the public has invested its hopes to safeguard continued stability and growth in the financial markets. These deserve special mention.
First and foremost could be Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who is symbolic of sound financial management. She remains as minister of finance. There is also Mari Elka Pangestu, who got an uncontroversial extension at the Trade Ministry. There was the big question why the coordinating ministry for the economy was entrusted to Hatta Radjasa, who has bureaucratic experience but is a politician, not an economist.
He is apparently an insider and confidant to the President. Giving Yudhoyono the benefit of the doubt, this might be the reason for giving Hatta the important position. While the position is a powerful one, it does not necessarily demand technical expertise.
This position was introduced by Soeharto when the economic ministers were new to the vagaries of international deliberations with multilateral agencies.
At that time, technical work was performed by Cabinet ministers while the coordinating minister protected and shepherded the ministers through unfamiliar territory. Now the economic ministers themselves are senior internationals, and Hatta supports them in dealing with parliament and political parties.
Less obvious are the reasons for selecting people for the other ministries. Observers make a big deal out of the large proportion of ministers coming from political parties as compared to professionals. The important observation here is that for those ministries with high technical content, the ministers have professional credentials.
Witness Gusti Muhammad Hatta in the environment ministry, Armida Alisjahbana as the National Development Planning (Bappenas) head, Endang Rahayu for health.
It seems that wherever possible, President Yudhoyono prefers to place party leaders who are expected to hold the parliamentary coalition together. To understand this decision, we have to understand the nature of the presidential prerogative, because the appointment of party politicians is based on that principle.
Cabinet ministers serve at the pleasure of the President, and it is the President's desire to work with a generally supportive parliament, after the hard lessons of his first term when parliamentary positions were taken at the whim of personalities who were often as corrupt as they were powerful. Many of these parliamentarians have since been taken to task by the KPK, and many have been replaced as a result of the 2009 elections.
With the new parliament, the President seeks an alliance among coalition partners. From the viewpoint of the President, it would be logical that he should need a politically peaceful relationship with parliament, and to achieve that he needs flexible cooperation between the legislative and executive branches of government.
With that comfort he can take the nation on fresh initiatives to break away from the debilitating problems that have been chronic in the Indonesian scene.
One important area of initiative is in the area of international relations. Yudhoyono has shown talent to be a world statesman and the nation has enough muscle to make it into a major player in world affairs. We have seen how President Yudhoyono captured international respect in Pittsburgh.
And we know that Indonesia has credibility in the Islamic world, having a Muslim population larger than the sum of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and the Persian Gulf Arab countries.
The area of most promising achievement is climate change. In the news a few days ago, Greenpeace delivered a letter and a bouquet of flowers to congratulate President Yudhoyono on his inauguration for his second presidential term, and for declaring his intention to take leadership in the battle against climate change by reducing Indonesia's greenhouse emissions by 21 percent by 2020.
The recently appointed environment minister understands the issue but is untested in international negotiations.
It would greatly boost Indonesia's chances for world stature if Yudho-yono himself could attend the conference or delegate a special emissary to present Indonesia's case to the Copenhagen forum and to the international media.
Back to Cabinet personalities, a further note of assurance comes from the upcoming appointment of deputy ministers coming from professional ranks who promise to add technical strength to the major ministries.
The naming of Kuntoro Mangkusubroto to a Cabinet-level position in the UKP3 (Presidential Unit for the Management of Programs), which basically is specially set up to streamline and "debottleneck" the Cabinet.
As a successful manager and troubleshooter, Kuntoro headed a special team that designed the structure and programs for the new Cabinet. His appointment is not unlike appointing the architect of a building as a supervisor.
This is necessary to focus the government on a core competence and opportunities.
So again, it's not about who the ministers are, but how the Cabinet performs. Hopefully the Cabinet can perform as expected by the people.
The writer is a public relations consultant with InterMatrix Communications.
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