Five years ago, amid speculation that B. J. Habibie and his allies in the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) would gain a large number of seats in the cabinet, State Secretary Moerdiono announced that "expertise" would be Soeharto's chief criterion for choosing ministers. This year, despite the economic crisis that enveloped the country, few people even thought to suggest that Soeharto sought the most technically qualified assistants. As the outgoing cabinet's term wore to a

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... lose, the jockeying for influence among ministers and their would-be successors emphasized the most important qualification of any who would join the new cabinet: loyalty.