Indonesia's new President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, yesterday named a cabinet short on experience but long on skills and integrity to lead the nation out of crisis.
He also put a civilian in charge of defence for the first time in decades, pushing aside the armed forces commander, Gen Wiranto, following mounting criticism of the military for flagrant human rights abuses at home.
A respected academic, Mr Juwono Sudarsono, one of only four of the cabinet members to have previously been a minister, became the first civilian defence minister in Indonesia in well over a generation.
"We have to make economic recovery our first goal, primary goal, and the second to maintain our territorial integrity," President Wahid told reporters after a nationally televised announcement of his new government.
But in a sign that in the complex negotiations the need to please all sides overcame the desire for fewer ministers, Mr Wahid's cabinet ended up about the same size as that of his predecessor, Mr B.J. Habibie. Representatives of all the largest six parties in parliament were given cabinet-level posts.
Although Jakarta stocks and the rupiah currency fell back after the cabinet turned out to be almost exactly as predicted, financial analysts were pleased with the new economic team.
The three key economic posts were shared between members of two of the most strongly reform-orientated parties. The appointment of Mr Kwik Kian Gie, a senior Megawati aide and critic of corrupt practices under President Suharto, was welcomed.
The new finance minister is Mr Bambang Sudibyo, a US-trained academic close to the leading former opposition figure, Mr Amien Rais, who now heads the legislative assembly. A respected government is crucial for Mr Wahid to encourage the return of the foreign investment which all but vanished over the last two years of economic and political crises. The International Monetary Fund, heading a $45 billion rescue fund for Indonesia, has suspended loans until a domestic banking scandal is resolved.
One senior diplomat said the government had the resolve to attract investment, but the task was formidable. "This government has got to deal with expectations which are extremely high, which, of course, they can't meet," he said.
Gen Wiranto, who was sidelined into the post of co-ordinating minister for political and security affairs, said the Indonesian military (TNI) would have no problem reporting to the new civilian defence minister. "For the TNI, the appointment of Juwono as the defence minister is no problem," said Gen Wiranto.
President Wahid insisted that the new defence minister had been the outgoing Gen Wiranto's choice. "Don't think the military is crazy. They know the whole society is changing . . . that the military has to change its attitude towards society. Don't think like the international press, judging the military in the wrong way," he said.
"We have a strong military and we need them and also they know how to protect [society] . . . Some of our generals are good, some are bad like in any other society."
In Gen Wiranto's place as military commander, Mr Wahid appointed Admiral Widodo Adi Sutjipto, the first non-army man to hold the post.
Mr Wahid was elected last week in the country's first contested presidential election together with the populist opposition figurehead, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, as his deputy. It was Ms Megawati, instead of the nearly blind Mr Wahid, who read out the cabinet's names in a nationally televised address.