Hartono's rise 'proves political unpredictability'

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto's surprise appointment of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Hartono as minister of information confirmed the unpredictable nuance of domestic politics, an analyst said yesterday.

Johanes Kristiadi of the Center for Strategic and International Studies admitted that he had never expected the appointment.

"It came as a surprise only because cabinet ministers under the New Order have almost always completed their terms of office," Kristiadi said.

"But in Indonesia, anything can happen and it is beyond everybody's expectation," he added.

The incumbent Minister of Information Harmoko will become the state minister for special assignments.

The cabinet changes are the third in the last two years. Soeharto dismissed State Minister of Food Ibrahim Hasan as the head of the Logistics Board in February 1995; a position he was holding concurrently with Satrio Budiharjo Judono. Satrio was dismissed as minister of trade in December 1995.

Kristiadi speculated that Hartono's and Harmoko's new jobs would only be temporary pending the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly next March to deliberate the guidelines of state policy and elect a president and vice president for 1998 until 2003.

He said that Hartono, whose extended military service will end next Tuesday, was awarded the new job in recognition of his merits.

"He has a great chance to stay in the new cabinet, perhaps as the minister of defense," Kristiadi said, adding that the Ministry of Information was an appropriate place for Hartono because of Harmoko's double responsibilities as minister and chairman of the dominant party, Golkar.

Harmoko looked set to be elected speaker of the House of Representatives, Kristiadi said.

"The new position will help Harmoko prepare material for the guidelines of state policy to be presented before the general assembly next March," he said.

Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie was of a similar opinion. He said promoting a Golkar chairman to the House's top post had been done before.

"Logically, the chairman of the biggest political party and election winner has a great chance of leading the House," Habibie said after opening a national meeting of the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI) in Surabaya, East Java.

Habibie was referring to the incumbent House Speaker Wahono who led Golkar to its fourth straight landslide victory in the 1992 election.

Habibie said it was well known that Hartono and Harmoko were Soeharto's best aides.

"Wisdom was behind the President's decision to make changes in the cabinet," said Habibie.

The chairman of the Muhammadiyah Moslem organization, Amien Rais, who attended the ICMI meeting, echoed Habibie's assessment of the cabinet changes.

"I think they were a simple matter, although we have to wait and see for the next one or two days," Amien said.

He dismissed speculation that the cabinet changes had something to do with the vice presidential election.

"This is not a chess game in which everybody knows where the match is leading," he said.

"President Soeharto is a wise man who has never allowed room for changing policy in political development in the past 30 years," Amien said. (nur/amd)