Mega deflects suggestion of govt poor performance

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.