Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A man for all seasons, Marsillam Simanjuntak joined Thursday a State Palace meeting to review the progress of the country's economic and political reforms in his new capacity as the President's private advisor.

As the head of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's new work monitoring unit, Marsillam would not elaborate on how the body would operate or what work it would do, and said there was no need for publicity about the new team.

"We don't do anything specific, just reviewing the President's programs in general... the team is internal in its essence, so there's no need for publicity," he said.

A former attorney general, cabinet secretary and justice minister in earlier administrations, Marsillam is tasked to review and advise the President on five issues; improving investment climate, government bureaucracy, small and medium-sized businesses, state-owned enterprises and law enforcement. His job was created by Presidential Decree No. 17/2006, issued on Sept. 29.

Yudhoyono's critics say this new law reflects the President's penchant for creating new institutions to resolve longstanding problems, which only causes more bureaucracy and confusion.

They point to Yudhoyono's establishment of an "integrated team to eradicate corruption", which has so far achieved little and has powers that overlap with the work of prosecutors and the Corruption Eradication Commission.

They have also questioned why the President, who already has seven expert staff and a board of advisors, needs another think-tank.

"Whether or not we'll be effective will depend on what the President and his ministers produce. What output we produce will be for the President. Since this is an internal issue, don't make a big fuss about us," Marsillam said.

The team, which has a three-year mandate of work, has two deputies – Lt. Gen. (ret) Agus Widjojo, former Indonesian Military territorial chief of staff and a former deputy speaker at the People's Consultative Assembly, and Edwin Gerungan, the former head of the now-defunct Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency and an independent commissioner at state Bank Mandiri.

Presidential spokesmen Andi Mallarangeng said the team would monitor and enforce the implementation of the President's policies at the grassroots level of bureaucracy. Andi denied the team had been created because cabinet ministers were not doing their jobs properly.