Febriamy Hutapea – Stung by sharp criticism of some of the selections for the new cabinet, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrat Party on Friday leapt to defend some of the appointments.

Jafar Hafsah, executive leader of the party, said former presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng, the new state minister of youth and sports affairs, had a number of positive qualities, including that he loved to play tennis and was good at it.

"As sports minister, he will get to play sports," Jafar said during a discussion organized by the Regional Representatives Council (DPD). "Andi is active in the party, still young, and the president trusts him. Hopefully he can become an idol among the young," Jafar said.

Jafar said that under Andi's leadership, the ministry would be able to provide better sports facilities and improve its service function.

Jafar also mentioned Tifatul Sembiring, chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the new minister of communication and information technology, saying he was the right person for the job given his background.

Tifatul obtained his bachelor's degree from the Institute of Computer and Information Management (STI&K).

Jafar said the Democrat Party was not in a position to comment on whether it was satisfied with the new cabinet, but the party supported all the president's decisions in selecting aides to fulfill his goals. "The measurement of the result of all the president's decisions is the people's welfare," he said.

However, Golkar Party member M Asri Anas, who represents West Sulawesi in the DPD, complained that Yudhoyono had not formed the cabinet with a view to it becoming effective.

Contrary to the president's promise to build an effective cabinet, Asri said the 34-minister cabinet was still bulky. "The big cabinet format will be difficult to coordinate," he said.

Asri also said that accommodating representatives from various parties was acceptable, but it would be better if Yudhoyono accommodated other stakeholders such as educational institutions to achieve a more representative composition.

Maswadi Rauf, a political analyst from the University of Indonesia, said that he understood that choosing 34 candidates from among millions of people was not an easy task. But he said the new cabinet had many weaknesses.

Maswadi said he questioned whether the 15 new faces recruited from six parties were capable and whether they had been placed in the right posts. "Most of them are politicians who have general skills, not expertise in their posts," he said.