Habibie's speech gains more disapproval<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): An increasing number of economists and political
\nanalysts deemed President B.J. Habibie's accountability speech a
\nbig failure, while student demonstrators, joined by ordinary
\ncitizens, stepped up pressure for the President to withdraw from
\nthe Oct. 20 presidential election.<\/p>\n
Kofifah Indar Parawansa, a legislator of the National
\nAwakening Party (PKB), said some 80 percent of the contents of
\nHabibie's speech was a far cry from reality.<\/p>\n
"It basically contains his wishes," she said.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Mochtar Pabotinggi said Habibie's speech
\nfocused on subjects which were not in the interests of the
\npeople.<\/p>\n
"The speech was deceiving ... I can't accept his
\naccountability speech," he said.<\/p>\n
Mochtar said that Habibie had failed to wipe out rampant
\ncorruption in the country and to deal firmly with former
\npresident Soeharto and his family members and associates
\nallegedly involved in corruption and abuses of power.<\/p>\n
Noted economist Sjahrir agreed.<\/p>\n
"The largest and the most critical problem is corruption," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
"If the (Habibie) government continues to rule, we'll be
\nfacing a much greater problem," Sjahrir added.<\/p>\n
Economist Faisal Basri, who's also secretary-general of the
\nNational Mandate Party, said many of the economic programs,
\nnotably the banking reform and privatization programs, had been
\nplagued by corruption.<\/p>\n
Mochtar added that Habibie had also failed in resolving the
\nhigh-profile Bank Bali scandal.<\/p>\n
"Habibie barely touched upon the Bank Bali case in his
\nspeech," he said.<\/p>\n
Sjahrir said that a satisfactory resolution of the Bank Bali
\nscandal was crucial to restoring confidence in the country's bank
\nrestructuring program.<\/p>\n
"The bank recapitalization program, which is crucial for
\neconomic recovery, has been dogged by the scandal," he pointed
\nout.<\/p>\n
"The cost of the bank restructuring program has increased
\ngreatly, imposing a huge burden on the people," he said.<\/p>\n
"The IMF and the World Bank have withheld lending to Indonesia
\nas they no longer have any trust in the Habibie administration,"
\nsaid Kofifah.<\/p>\n
The experts also lambasted Habibie for his failure in handling
\nthe East Timor problem.<\/p>\n
"The option for independence was not wrong. What's
\nfundamentally devastating is the great humiliation the nation is
\nnow suffering because of (Habibie's) failure to maintain
\n(peaceful) conditions after the referendum," Mochtar said.<\/p>\n
"Our dignity as a nation is now in the sewer as the
\ninternational community now sees us as a barbaric nation," he
\nadded.<\/p>\n
The embattled Habibie highlighted the achievements of his 16-
\nmonth administration in an accountability speech on Thursday
\nnight.<\/p>\n
He said his government had managed to put the country's
\neconomy on the path to recovery as reflected from a drop in
\ninflation, low interest rates, a stabilized rupiah and economic
\ngrowth during the second quarter of this year.<\/p>\n
Habibie also tried to defend his controversial handling of
\nEast Timor's self-determination vote, the unsuccessful
\ninvestigations into Soeharto's wealth and the politically charged
\nRp 546 billion Bank Bali scandal, in which his close aides have
\nbeen implicated.<\/p>\n
Habibie said that the handling of the corruption allegations
\nagainst Soeharto and his cronies had to be based on prevailing
\nlaws.<\/p>\n
He also said the police would resolve the Bank Bali case.<\/p>\n
Habibie urged Assembly members to ratify East Timor's
\nindependence vote because Indonesia had always been cornered at
\ninternational forums because of the East Timor issue.<\/p>\n
Economy<\/p>\n
Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University economist Anggito Abimayu
\ncriticized Habibie for mistakenly judging deflation over the past
\nseveral months as a sign of economic recovery.<\/p>\n
"The factors that caused deflation should be well analyzed. Is
\nit because of the fall in purchasing power? If that is the case,
\nthe deflation is not quite beneficial," Anggito said.<\/p>\n
Anggito added that Habibie had wrongly attributed the
\nstrengthening of the rupiah over the past several months to the
\neconomic reforms he introduced during his 512-day presidency.<\/p>\n
In fact, Anggito said, the rupiah had strengthened because of
\nexternal factors, including the strengthening of the yen.<\/p>\n
Anggito especially lambasted Habibie for his carelessness in
\nquoting a lot of incorrect economic data in his speech.<\/p>\n
"Who wrote the speech? If it was written by his Cabinet, that
\nmeans his Cabinet has low trust in him. If it was written by
\noutsiders, it's really deplorable," Anggito said.<\/p>\n
Anggito did, however, praise Habibie for his efforts to
\nimprove the economy by establishing the Indonesian Debt
\nRestructuring Agency (INDRA), the Jakarta Initiative Task Force,
\nthe Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and by issuing
\nthe Regional Autonomy Law.<\/p>\n
"But all these mean nothing if the implementation is shoddy,"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
The working committee of Petition 50, a group of public
\nfigures most critical of Soeharto, blamed Habibie's brief
\nadministration for "national disintegration, national instability
\nand the collapsing economy".<\/p>\n
The committee's spokesman, Ali Sadikin, called on the Assembly
\nto reject his accountability speech and throw out his bid for a
\nsecond term in office.<\/p>\n
Gadjah Mada University rector Ichlasul Amal said Habibie's
\nspeech, however good it was, would have no impact on the views
\nthe Assembly members have of him.<\/p>\n
"Habibie's speech will not be influential for Assembly's
\nmembers since they have already taken a clear stand on the
\nspeech: either to accept or to reject it," Ikhlasul said<\/p>\n
Seven of the 11 factions in the Assembly reviewed the speech
\non Friday evening and the other four will deliver their reviews
\non Saturday.<\/p>\n
A rejection of the accountability speech may prompt Habibie to
\nwithdraw from the presidential election. (rei\/jsk\/23)<\/p>",
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