The National Unity Cabinet was the Indonesian cabinet which served under President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri from 29 October 1999 until 23 July 2001. The Cabinet was formed after Wahid and Megawati were elected President and Vice President by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). The cabinet was originally designed to look after the interests of the various political parties and the Indonesian National Armed Forces, but this notion quickly disappeared as Wahid's presidency began to break down.
National Unity Cabinet
Members of the initial National Unity Cabinet in 1999
Members of the reshuffled National Unity Cabinet in 2000
Image: President Abdurrahman Wahid Indonesia
Abdurrahman Wahid, more colloquially known as Gus Dur, was an Indonesian politician and Islamic religious leader who served as the fourth president of Indonesia, from his election in 1999 until he was removed from office in 2001. A long time leader within the Nahdlatul Ulama organization, he was the founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB). He was the son of Minister of Religious Affairs Wahid Hasyim, and the grandson of Nahdatul Ulama founder Hasyim Asy'ari. Due to a visual impairment caused by glaucoma, he was blind in the left eye and partially blind in his right eye. He was the first president of Indonesia to have had physical disabilities.
Official portrait, 1999
Abdurrahman Wahid as a young man, ca. 1960s
Abdurrahman Wahid standing between his mother and father, and behind his siblings and a friend of the family, circa 1952.
President Suharto met with Wahid in 1998.