Bad economy is not my fault: Megawati

Bad economy is not my fault: Megawati

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Saturday deflected any
possible suggestion of her government's poor performance,
insisting that the current economic crisis was a vestige of long
accumulated problems.

Presenting her response to questions on her progress report,
Megawati told the Annual Session of People's Consultative
Assembly that the government is trying to find "realistic"
solutions to the current economic situation.

"The difficulties in dealing with the weakening financial
situation is because the problems had been accumulating since the
beginning of the economic crisis," Megawati said in her prepared
speech.

"In the last 100-days the government has settled certain
economic disputes realistically, problems that had been delayed
for months," she remarked.

Megawati cited the signing of the Letter of Intent with the
International Monetary Fund, the resolution of the Overseas
Private Investment Cooperation (OPIC) and preparations for the
Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) as realistic achievements.

The economic performance of the government drew widespread
reaction from the country's highest legislative body after
Megawati presented her progress report on Thursday.

While the tone among Assembly factions to the current problems
faced by the government was understanding, especially in the wake
of catastrophic global events, they also urged the government to
set clear priorities to pursue.

But Megawati on Saturday maintained that her economic team was
doing the best it could, and due to the complexity of issues at
hand it could not be resolved in such a short time.

"I am not trying to offer pessimism. I'm only providing the
true picture of our condition, which is far from rhetoric," she
asserted.

"I just hope we can be realistic in determining the
priorities, and find the solutions for these problems together."

"There are no shortcuts in dealing with the current situation
that we have to face," Megawati added.

In what may have been a mild jab at Assembly members who had
not read her report, the president also answered many of their
questions by simply stating that the information was readily
available in the addendum submitted with the progress report on
Thursday.

"answers to most of the questions could actually be found in
the separate explanation. I understand the time limitation for
legislators to look into the separate data that I provided," she
said.

Megawati further underscored her commitment in fighting
corruption, pledging to step up efforts in settling many major
corruption cases and continue the discussions of regulations to
curb such practices.

At the end of her speech, she said that she is ready and open
to criticism.

"The government has determined the priorities, and set forth
operational steps to cope with these problems. We are open to
criticism and will always respond to suggestions from the
legislature," Megawati said.