Jakarta, 23 October (AKI/Jakarta Post) - Indonesia’s two biggest Muslim organisations, Nahdhatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, say they are not disappointed by their exclusion from the new cabinet.

Muhammadiyah Youth chairman Muhammad Izzul Muslimin told Indonesian daily The Jakarta Post it made sense for president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to exclude NU and Muhammadiyah despite both organisations having large numbers of politically active members.

“Yudhoyono might not have felt the need to include mass organisations in his cabinet because his party won by a landslide in the elections and now he has a strong and big coalition,” he said.

“I think Yudhoyono might have felt he had all the support he needed.”

Yudhoyono did not ask either NU or Muhammadiyah to nominate any of their members for his cabinet.

Several cabinet members, however, are affiliated to the two organisations.

Ministers loosely affiliated to NU include National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh and Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, while Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar was a senior Muhammadiyah official.

In 2004, Yudhoyono appointed Muhammadiyah’s Siti Fadilah Supari as health minister and NU’s Maftuh Basyuni as religious affairs minister.

“Back then the Democratic Party was still a small party and their coalition wasn’t as strong as today,” Izzul said.

He ruled out Muhammadiyah’s exclusion from the new cabinet because of its support of then vice president Jusuf Kalla’s presidential bid.

“The chairmen of both NU and Muhammadiyah might have seemed to be leaning toward Kalla, but neither ever formally announced their support of his bid,” Izzul said.

“So maybe this is just about the organisations’ stances.”

NU deputy chairman Masdar Farid Mas’udi was reluctant to comment on the matter, saying he considered Yudhoyono a regular “NU person”.

“We’re glad the President has put his trust in many of our members in the effort to make the nation more prosperous,” he said.

He added he expected they would all work hard to fulfill the president’s campaign promises and give their best to improve the people’s welfare.

“We as a community organization can only support them so that their programes are a success over the next five years,” Masdar said.

He added that he hoped the new ministers would involve mass organisations such as NU in implementing their programmes, especially in education, the environment and social issues, pointing out such organisations could put the government directly in touch with voters.

Asked for his opinion on the president’s performance in his first term, Masdar said it could only be appraised from Yudhoyono’s being re-elected.

“The fact he was re-elected shows people have appraised him positively,” he said.

“Whatever, let’s just move forward and hope they can all work harder and we in the meantime will support their efforts.”

Meanwhile, Al Khairaat, a Muslim organization focusing on education, based in Palu, Central Sulawesi, has two of its members in the new cabinet.

Social services Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri is the grandson of Al Khairaat’s founder, while maritime affairs and fisheries minister Fadel Muhammad is the Al Khairaat Foundation chairman.

The overwhelming majority of Indonesia's population of 240 million people are Muslim.