Currency stability is top priority: Soeharto

Currency stability is top priority: Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): Restoring currency stability will be the new
government's most immediate priority, President Soeharto said
last night.

"We're not asking for much. We just want to have a stable
rupiah so that people's living standards do not fall further,"
Soeharto said during a dinner in honor of the 1,000 members of
the People's Consultative Assembly.

If this was achieved, the country's economic wheels could
start rolling again, he said.

The crisis, he admitted, had made it seem that the fruits of
30 years of development had been destroyed. "This crisis has
inflicted big losses on everyone."

The rupiah has plunged by more than 70 percent in the last
eight months. Soeharto has indicated on several occasions that he
might move to peg the rupiah to a more acceptable level.

Thanking the 1,000 Assembly members for returning him to
office for his seventh term on Wednesday, Soeharto promised that
he would do his utmost to end the economic crisis.

Soeharto shared a table with new Vice President B.J. Habibie
and his wife Ainun, former vice president Try Sutrisno and his
wife, and assembly speaker Harmoko and his wife.

There were 237 tables in all at the candle-lit dinner. The
drinks served were milk, Coca cola and the Kratingdaeng energy
drink.

"We need this to regain our stamina," said Ekky Syahrudin from
Golkar as he sipped his energy drink.

The menu was a combination of Padang food, Javanese nasi liwet
(a rice dish), baked fish, soup, and satay.

"It's nothing lavish. Times are hard," a presidential
household official said.

The prayers were led by Moslem scholar and preacher Quraish
Shihab.

"So this is going to be our new minister of religious
affairs," some diners commented on Quraish's choice.

To enliven the evening, pop singers Yuni Shara and Dewi Yull
entertained the diners. (prb)