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Handling the health portfolio over the next five years is not going to be a walk in the park. Millions of Indonesians still do not have proper access to health services. Pneumonia and diarrhea continue to be the two biggest killers of children under the age of 5. Two-thirds of all provinces are said to be grappling with malnutrition.

But when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono named Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih the new health minister, the questions raised did not concern any of these pressing issues.

Most, if not all, of the questions — and there were a lot — revolved around her involvement in the controversial United States Naval Medical Research Unit-2 (Namru 2) project, which was shut down by former Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari for alleged nonscientific activities, including espionage.

Supari initially expressed her disappointment over the Endang’s appointment. After all, the former health minister had demoted Endang in 2008 for carrying a virus specimen overseas without consulting her, a charge the new minister has denied.

But if you set the Namru issue aside and focus on the real health issues, Endang’s appointment shouldn’t be all that controversial.

Endang, who has worked at the Ministry of Health since 1990, possesses an impressive r é sum é . After obtaining a degree from the University of Indonesia’s School of Medicine in 1979, she continued her graduate and doctoral studies in public health at Harvard University.

From 1997 to 2006, Endang held an important position at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, as a technical adviser in the department of communicable disease surveillance and response.

In 2007, the 54-year-old led the biomedical and pharmaceutical research and development center at the Health Ministry.

People who have worked with her sing her praises.

Agus Purwadianto, Endang’s former boss and head of the ministry’s Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes), described Endang as an innovative researcher.

Agus, who has been friends with the new minister since 1973, said she was a real adventurer who spent parts of her life traveling around the world.

“She is a very persistent person, a bit stubborn. If she wants something, she won’t stop until she gets it,” he said.

“She always stands by what she says and believes in.”

Friends also know her as an avid writer, and some of her papers have been published in international medical journals.

“She was very active in our class wall magazine for two or three consecutive years, and she has continued writing ever since,” Agus said. He added that Endang was also behind the success of the Indonesian Basic Health Study (Riskesdas) launched in 2008.

The bespectacled Endang is a married mother of three whose husband, MJN Mamahit, is a physician at Tangerang Hospital.

“Just like most women who love their jobs, she puts her heart and mind into every single thing she does,” Agus said. “She loves what she does.”

Indah Yuning Prapti, Balitbangkes’s secretary, who has known Endang for 12 years, noted that her new boss was an exceptionally smart and emotionally mature person.

“She once told me that she was short-tempered, but she tries her best to control it,” she said.

Indah said Endang was familiar with public health problems at the grassroots level due to her long experience in the field.

“She was once the head of a community health center in Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, and she has done a great deal of research in many areas,” she said.

Indah said Endang had pledged to continue most of Supari’s programs, including the state health insurance scheme, or Jamkesmas, and to pay more attention to research and development. Dessy Sagita