Former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono discussed presidential plans and a cabinet with visitors to his home yesterday, even though he has yet to declare victory after Indonesia's first direct vote for a leader.

One of his early apparent cabinet choices was his opponent's running mate, Muslim cleric Hasyim Muzadi, who told Reuters he had received an offer to fill the post of religion minister but had turned it down.

Yudhoyono leads incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri by 61 percent to 39 percent in counting so far in Monday's presidential election, with more than three quarters of the estimated total ballots tallied.

He has not claimed victory and Megawati's camp has said she will have no comment until the announcement of official results due on Oct. 5.

However, Yudhoyono and his advisers are moving ahead with preparations to take power on Oct. 20. Yudhoyono met high school teachers and laid off workers at his sprawling house in the West Java regency of Bogor, and asked the teachers their views on a cabinet choice.

“Who do you think is the most suitable person to become education minister?”, Yudhoyono asked as he sat under a tree in his front yard.

The teachers first chuckled and then suggested several names varying from a bureaucrat to a high-profile school principal. “He was so authoritative, so firm. I am very happy to be able to talk with him”, said physics teacher Siswanti who wore a lavender Muslim dress.

“The concrete version of reconciliation is an offer to take a comfortable post that many are interested in, Minister of Religious Affairs”, said Megawati's vice presidential running mate Muzadi, who is also chief of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organisation.

“I have apologised that I could not accept that position because I want to go back to my habitat, the pesantren community”, he told Reuters late on Tuesday, referring to the Indonesian-style Islamic boarding school system. Muzadi is a moderate who has denounced the Islamic militants who orchestrated bombings in the world's most populous Muslim country in recent years.

<B>Recruiting young suicide bombers</B>

The latest attack came 11 days before the Sept. 20 presidential run-off in a bombing that killed nine people in front of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

Police suspect Malaysian engineer Azahari Husin from the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah, and who has allegedly been recruiting young suicide bombers, was behind that attack.

Muzadi said he wanted to be more involved in leading his prominent pesantren in the East Java city of Malang.

“In the coming future, I see an increase of the use of violence”, he said “Education is the best solution to reduce, repress and neutralise such things.”

Education has been a major issue in the campaign, but Indonesian politicians have so far failed to fulfil promises to increase the budget for education, improve the quality of schools and provide cheap tuition for the general public.

Yudhoyono, 55, is himself pursuing a doctorate in agricultural economics at the country's leading agricultural university, attending class even during the campaign

<B>Tomi Soetjipto</B>