Mondale to convey U.S. 'grave concern' about RI
Mondale to convey U.S. 'grave concern' about RI
WASHINGTON (AFP): Former U.S. vice president Walter Mondale
will express the Clinton administration's "grave concern" about
Indonesia when he travels there next week, Deputy Treasury
Secretary Lawrence Summers said Thursday.
A White House spokesman on Thursday confirmed reports that
Mondale would be going to Jakarta to meet President Soeharto and
other high-ranking officials.
Mondale, who will be accompanied by senior officials from the
Treasury and the State Department, leaves for Jakarta on Saturday
and is expected to stay until Tuesday or Wednesday.
Mondale's mandate from Clinton, stressing political as well as
economic issues, show how worried the world community about the
situation in Indonesia.
"The situation in Asia in many ways has come together very
significantly in the past couple of months," Summers said in a
CNBC television interview.
"We've been gratified by the progress we've seen in Korea and
Thailand. Certainly there are very important problems that remain
in Indonesia."
As a result, Mondale will be carrying a message from President
Bill Clinton "reflecting our very grave concern about the
situation in Indonesia."
"The problems are of a quite broad sort, about the way in
which economic policy is going to be managed going forward."
Indonesia is in the throes of its worst crisis since Soeharto
came to power in 1966, with the collapse of the currency having
crippled the economy, prompted mass layoffs, sent prices soaring
and sparked widespread unrest.
Summers repeated Washington's opposition to Indonesia's
planned establishment of a currency board to manage fluctuations
in the national currency, the rupiah.
"Currency boards have their place, but they have to know their
place," he said.
"There are many preconditions before a currency board is a
viable arrangement."
Officials in both the Clinton administration and the
International Monetary Fund have pressed Soeharto to stick to IMF
reform measures as the best means of restoring confidence to his
battered economy.