It is no dream team, but can President Abdurrahman Wahid's new Cabinet save his presidency from an early death? Many of the Jakarta elite do not think so, judging by yesterday's negative coverage in the Indonesian media. Devi Asmarani and Marianne Kearney of The Straits Times Indonesia Bureau highlight the good and the bad.

No divided loyalties, ergo less interference by Gus Dur: Solidity and personal loyalty to the President are the new team's strongest qualities.

Observers, politicians and business people said the new Cabinet, which critics have dubbed a cronies ensemble, could improve the performance of his 10-month-old administration, given that they should be able to work with each other better than the previous one.

With fewer political party figures, and more professionals with personal links to the President, the government would appear more solid and coordinated, they said.

"I don't think there is anything wrong with having an "all the President's men's Cabinet'," said legislator Arifin Junaidi from the Naitonal Awakening Party (PKB). "The last Cabinet was not unified because there was double loyalty and ministers who were more loyal to the party brokers who got them their job than to the President," he told The Straits Times. Many of the ministers who managed to keep their job had assured their loyalty to the President, he said.

In the economic team, three names – economic czar Rizal Ramli, Finance Minister Priyadi Praptosuharjo and Junior Minister of National Economic Restructuring Cacuk Sudarijanto are closely associated with the President.

They are expected to cooperate better, with less intervention, than Mr Kwik Kian Gie's previous economic team, which since early this year had seen their authority undermined by the teams of presidential economic advisers.

Being largely handpicked choices of the President, this new batch of ministers is also unlikely to suffer the humiliation of having the media ask if they are the latest subjects of the President's wrath whenever he launches into vague accusations of graft by his "larger family".

Many old faces, less breaking-in time required: There is some continuity assured as the President retained two-thirds of the previous Cabinet.

That the President retained two-third of the previous Cabinet members and appointed only eight new faces is at least an assurance that there will be a continuity of policies already in place.

Many of the ministers – Maritime Affairs and Fishery Minister Sarwono Kusumaatmaatmadja, Foreign Affairs Minister Alwi Shihab and Industry and Trade Minister Luhut Panjaitan – are among those who got to keep their job. Others remained in their post, albeit with a new name.

Social commentator Wimar Witoelar said the President tried to keep the damage as little as possible by not removing too many people from the Cabinet. He drew an analogy: "Keep your bad teeth as long as they are not completely rotten, because it is painful to have your teeth pulled."

According to PKB's Arifin, a member of the President's inner circle, some of the ministers had requested to the President that they be posted in the same ministry if they were reappointed again so they did not have to start all over at the new post.

The structure might just work: Tighter line-up and clearer job descriptions will prevent police overlapping.

A number of ministries in the previous 35-member Cabinet were eliminated, merged into other ministries, or renamed as part of the restructuring process to make a slimmer team.

This move, the work of three of his ministers, has generally earned praises as it dissolved some ministries, like the youth affairs and sports, which for long has been regarded as "superfluous". With a tighter line-up and clearer job descriptions, the government hopes to end policy overlapping, the legacy of bloated Cabinets.

Minister of State Apparatus Ryaas Rasyid will oversee the merging and dissolution of the departments so they would not create massive unemployment, by employing some of the staff at other ministries.

Yet this will likely not calm the thousands of employees of the dissolved and merged ministries, who fear that their fates will be unclear for a while until the lengthy process of bureaucratic reforms is completed. In the process, the government may be subjected to street protests organised by the jobless civil servants, like late last year, when President Abdurrahman Wahid dissolved two ministries.