Anwar says IMF unfair if it opts to hold RI loan

Anwar says IMF unfair if it opts to hold RI loan

KANANASKIS, Alberta (Reuters): Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister said on Friday he would push the International Monetary Fund to begin the disbursement of its $10 billion loan to Indonesia as soon as possible.

"I don't think (any further delay) is fair. They (Indonesians) have gone through a lot. The people suffered in the process and now you have a government that is credible and determined to take measures and necessary reforms," Anwar Ibrahim told reporters on the eve of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) finance minister's meeting in this resort town in the Canadian Rockies.

Anwar said he had met with IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus shortly after arriving in Kananaskis for the two-day meeting.

"I expressed my views and concerns to Michel Camdessus. I said the international community has been asking for reform. The international community wanted Soeharto to step down. Soeharto has now resigned and the commitment to reform is more pronounced than ever," Anwar said.

Camdessus and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin both said earlier on Friday that "some time" was needed before the IMF could begin to pay new installments of its loan to strife-torn Indonesia.

The IMF said the assumptions underpinning the loan would have to be reassessed to take account of the new economic situation, and both Camdessus and Rubin said a wait-and-see approach would be the most prudent.

Anwar dismissed that strategy as a luxury that Indonesia could not afford.

"The United States has the time and the luxury to wait, but I think, considering Indonesia, (that) it's not fair, not acceptable, not just, for a country that has undergone such a traumatic experience, the hardship, the difficulties (to be forced to wait for help)," Anwar said.

"You cannot expect people to wait and see when there is growing unemployment and a shortage of food and medicine. I think this is the time where the international community must be more responsive in dealing with the situation."

Anwar said Indonesia's new president, B.J. Habibie -- whom Anwar described as a "family friend" -- has supported the calls for further democratic reforms and brought credibility to beleaguered Jakarta.

He said he would make his views "strongly known" during a scheduled meeting with Rubin on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said plans for a bilateral trade financing scheme for Indonesia still stand for now,

Lee said there was no change in Singapore's plans because such Indonesian ministers as top economics minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita remain in place.

Ginandjar was one of the ministers who kept his job when Indonesia's President B.J. Habibie announced his cabinet line-up after taking over from former President Soeharto on Thursday.

Singapore earlier in the year announced plans for a US$5- billion trade insurance scheme for Indonesia, hard-hit by the regional economic crisis.