Habibie's speech gains more disapproval

JAKARTA (JP): An increasing number of economists and political analysts deemed President B.J. Habibie's accountability speech a big failure, while student demonstrators, joined by ordinary citizens, stepped up pressure for the President to withdraw from the Oct. 20 presidential election.

Kofifah Indar Parawansa, a legislator of the National Awakening Party (PKB), said some 80 percent of the contents of Habibie's speech was a far cry from reality.

"It basically contains his wishes," she said.

Political analyst Mochtar Pabotinggi said Habibie's speech focused on subjects which were not in the interests of the people.

"The speech was deceiving ... I can't accept his accountability speech," he said.

Mochtar said that Habibie had failed to wipe out rampant corruption in the country and to deal firmly with former president Soeharto and his family members and associates allegedly involved in corruption and abuses of power.

Noted economist Sjahrir agreed.

"The largest and the most critical problem is corruption," he said.

"If the (Habibie) government continues to rule, we'll be facing a much greater problem," Sjahrir added.

Economist Faisal Basri, who's also secretary-general of the National Mandate Party, said many of the economic programs, notably the banking reform and privatization programs, had been plagued by corruption.

Mochtar added that Habibie had also failed in resolving the high-profile Bank Bali scandal.

"Habibie barely touched upon the Bank Bali case in his speech," he said.

Sjahrir said that a satisfactory resolution of the Bank Bali scandal was crucial to restoring confidence in the country's bank restructuring program.

"The bank recapitalization program, which is crucial for economic recovery, has been dogged by the scandal," he pointed out.

"The cost of the bank restructuring program has increased greatly, imposing a huge burden on the people," he said.

"The IMF and the World Bank have withheld lending to Indonesia as they no longer have any trust in the Habibie administration," said Kofifah.

The experts also lambasted Habibie for his failure in handling the East Timor problem.

"The option for independence was not wrong. What's fundamentally devastating is the great humiliation the nation is now suffering because of (Habibie's) failure to maintain (peaceful) conditions after the referendum," Mochtar said.

"Our dignity as a nation is now in the sewer as the international community now sees us as a barbaric nation," he added.

The embattled Habibie highlighted the achievements of his 16- month administration in an accountability speech on Thursday night.

He said his government had managed to put the country's economy on the path to recovery as reflected from a drop in inflation, low interest rates, a stabilized rupiah and economic growth during the second quarter of this year.

Habibie also tried to defend his controversial handling of East Timor's self-determination vote, the unsuccessful investigations into Soeharto's wealth and the politically charged Rp 546 billion Bank Bali scandal, in which his close aides have been implicated.

Habibie said that the handling of the corruption allegations against Soeharto and his cronies had to be based on prevailing laws.

He also said the police would resolve the Bank Bali case.

Habibie urged Assembly members to ratify East Timor's independence vote because Indonesia had always been cornered at international forums because of the East Timor issue.

Economy

Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University economist Anggito Abimayu criticized Habibie for mistakenly judging deflation over the past several months as a sign of economic recovery.

"The factors that caused deflation should be well analyzed. Is it because of the fall in purchasing power? If that is the case, the deflation is not quite beneficial," Anggito said.

Anggito added that Habibie had wrongly attributed the strengthening of the rupiah over the past several months to the economic reforms he introduced during his 512-day presidency.

In fact, Anggito said, the rupiah had strengthened because of external factors, including the strengthening of the yen.

Anggito especially lambasted Habibie for his carelessness in quoting a lot of incorrect economic data in his speech.

"Who wrote the speech? If it was written by his Cabinet, that means his Cabinet has low trust in him. If it was written by outsiders, it's really deplorable," Anggito said.

Anggito did, however, praise Habibie for his efforts to improve the economy by establishing the Indonesian Debt Restructuring Agency (INDRA), the Jakarta Initiative Task Force, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and by issuing the Regional Autonomy Law.

"But all these mean nothing if the implementation is shoddy," he said.

The working committee of Petition 50, a group of public figures most critical of Soeharto, blamed Habibie's brief administration for "national disintegration, national instability and the collapsing economy".

The committee's spokesman, Ali Sadikin, called on the Assembly to reject his accountability speech and throw out his bid for a second term in office.

Gadjah Mada University rector Ichlasul Amal said Habibie's speech, however good it was, would have no impact on the views the Assembly members have of him.

"Habibie's speech will not be influential for Assembly's members since they have already taken a clear stand on the speech: either to accept or to reject it," Ikhlasul said

Seven of the 11 factions in the Assembly reviewed the speech on Friday evening and the other four will deliver their reviews on Saturday.

A rejection of the accountability speech may prompt Habibie to withdraw from the presidential election. (rei/jsk/23)