Mar'ie silent on meeting with Habibie

JAKARTA (JP): Former minister of finance Mar'ie Muhammad held a 30-minute talk with President B.J. Habibie on Saturday at Merdeka Palace.

Mar'ie however refused to talk to journalists after the meeting, despite his promise beforehand that he would brief them on the result of his discussion with Habibie.

He rushed to his car after the meeting and just shook his head when asked about the meeting.

"As chairman of the Indonesian Transparency Society he should be transparent too," one journalist said.

The meeting itself was shorter than expected because the President usually spends at least one hour with his guests.

The House of Representatives (DPR) dropped Mar'ie's name on Thursday as a candidate to chair the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

Mar'ie disclosed on Thursday that he had turned down Habibie's offer to serve as an ambassador in a European country.

Many people believe he will remain critical to the President, and the plan to send him to Europe was devised to distance him from the government.

The relationship between Habibie and Mar'ie was often tense during their five-year term in cabinet.

As minister of finance, Mar'ie often said "No" when Habibie, then state minister of research and technology, asked for funds for the state-owned aircraft manufacturer IPTN and other projects.

In June 1994, he slashed Habibie's funding request to purchase 39 secondhand German warships from US$1.1 billion to $482 million, saying Habibie's figure was too high.

Not long after reporting the warship issue as its cover story, the news magazine Tempo was banned by the government. Another weekly magazine Editor and the tabloid DeTIK were also banned for other reasons. (prb)