JAKARTA, Indonesia — As the names of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s revamped cabinet began to leak Wednesday, it became clear that the liberal former general would not wield his overwhelming mandate in the manner everyone had hoped.
Though his much praised economic team remains largely intact, with some hopeful new additions, many of the other posts look poised to be filled by lackluster political appointees, analysts said.
The reform-minded president won a second and final five-year term in July with 60 percent of the vote. The Democrat Party, which he founded only six years ago, is now the largest party in a crowded parliament.
Having won by such a margin, anticipation was high that Yudhoyono would use this new clout to appoint highly effective professionals who could tackle enduring issues like endemic graft, crumbling infrastructure, rampant poverty and an unreliable judicial system.
Instead, the president appears to have acquiesced, reserving only economic posts for the technocrats while doling out others, like the key ministry of law and human rights, to members of the handful of political parties that supported his re-election bid.
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