Introduce provisions protecting freedoms of religion, assembly, opinion, association and information, among other human rights. The truth is that she went home because she was upset. After all, the new cabinet, consisting mostly of Wahid's friends and favorites, ignores her interests. Both Kwik Kian Gie and Laksamana Sukardi, her favored PDI-P stalwarts, were not included. As Wahid had promised, the new cabinet is more streamlined than the 35-member team he assembled last October.
New faces are few.
More than two-thirds of the appointees are holdovers from the previous cabinet. Megawati had won nearly a third of the popular vote in the July 1999 parliamentary polls, but was outmaneuvered by Wahid and assembly chief Rais in the race for the presidency. That apparent concession to the PDI-P was key to his survival during the MPR session, which lasted from Aug. 7 to 18. In July, parliament, or the DPR, mustered an official summons to Wahid so he could explain his decision. At that session, Wahid acidly told the 500 members of the DPR, which is part of the 695-seat MPR, that parliament had no constitutional right to question him.