PHOTOGRAPHS of elementary school students hang on the walls of the Ki Hajar Dewantara Building of the Elementary and Secondary Education and Culture Ministry in Jakarta. Most of them show children in remote areas, wearing shabby uniforms but genuine smiles on their faces. The photographs were put up at the request of the new minister, Anies Baswedan, who asked that they be hung everywhere, including in all meeting rooms. "So that when we meet, their faces will remind us that we work for them," said Anies, in his office last week.

FAISAL Basri moved his fingers over his cellphone monitor to find the message he wanted. It was from a reporter, who said: "Many are pessimistic [over your appointment] because you are seen as a crony of Kuntoro Mangkusubroto." This did not sit well with Faisal. "I don't need this," he said. The Kuntoro mentioned in the message is the former chairman of the President's Delivery Unit for Development, Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4).

IN a small and cozy dining room of a house at the Widya Chandra ministers' residential complex in South Jakarta, Bambang Brodjonegoro dispelled the stereotype of a finance minister: cold, terse and super-cautious, when talking to members of the media. At a dinner with national media chief editors, Bambang spoke in a relaxed manner about his new position. "The Finance Ministry must actively push for a maritime vision and tariff harmonization," he said.

ONE month after he was appointed coordinating minister for maritime affairs and fisheries, Indroyono Soesilo's working hours have stretched late into the night. Perhaps it's because he is, so far, the only official coordinating minister. "I'm the only who has received his marching orders, the other coordinating ministers are still awaiting theirs," he said when he met the Tempo team two weeks ago.

Indroyono's office, located at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) building in Central Jakarta, is not unfamiliar to him. From 1997 to 1999 he worked there as the BPPT deputy director in charge of natural resources. Today, he occupies the huge office of the former BPPT chairman, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, the last vice president in the New Order era and the first president to launch the reformasi era. "No one dares to occupy this office, they're all afraid," he joked, in explaining how he ended up there.

THE newly appointed minister for maritime affairs and fisheries appeared in casual clothes, although she wore a long skirt down to her ankles. She admits to dressing more than she ever did before embarking on her new job. "I must now wear clothing that covers the tattoo on my leg," she said, in explaining her sartorial change. Some things don't change however, as she still insists on wearing 10-centimeter high-heeled shoes and wedges.

HAVING had to change jobs from being CEO of the state-owned railway company KIA, to transportation minister in the newly-formed cabinet of President Joko Widodo, Ignasius Jonan describes his new responsibilities through an interesting analogy. Whereas his worldview used to be from a train, for the next five years, he must view everything from a helicopter. "Each area has its own specific problem but the four dimensions of my new responsibilityland, sea, air and railwaymust get equal attention," said Jonan.