PM Hashimoto due in Jakarta for crisis talks
JAKARTA (JP): Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto is scheduled to arrive here Saturday evening for a two-day working visit, a senior government official confirmed yesterday.
Hashimoto is expected to bridge a dispute between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and President Soeharto over the latter's plan to peg the rupiah at a fixed rate to the U.S. dollar under a currency board system.
"The two leaders are expected to focus their discussion on the current economic crisis in the region, especially in Indonesia, and on what Japan can do to help our country," the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
"We hope he can help us solve our economic crisis," said the official.
Hashimoto will arrive only hours after the President is set to announce his cabinet line-up Saturday morning, another government source said yesterday.
"This is totally a coincidence, it has nothing to do with Hashimoto's arrival," said the source.
The prime minister's office announced in Tokyo that Hashimoto would hold bilateral talks with President Soeharto on Sunday and would leave Jakarta after the meeting. He will be the first foreign leader to meet with Soeharto after the President's reelection yesterday.
AFP quoted the prime minister as saying that Japan would seek to help Indonesia through its problems with the IMF but said confusion in the country persists.
"I respect his (Soeharto's) efforts to continue taking responsibility and hope Indonesia will recover as soon as possible," the news agency quoted Hashimoto as saying.
Japan is Indonesia's largest trading partner and creditor and has pledged US$5 billion to support the $43 billion IMF rescue package for Jakarta.
"It's useful for both of the countries to hold frank talks now," a foreign ministry official said in Tokyo yesterday.
"The two leaders are to discuss cooperation between the two countries and economic issues," the official said.
In a guarded reaction to a question on Soeharto's handling of his ailing economy, Hashimoto said he respected the President's efforts to take responsibility for the country's woes.
The IMF has called on Soeharto to follow a strict reform program to pull Indonesia out of its crisis and unlock stalled payments from its rescue fund.
"Confusion (in Indonesia) has continued, but we will also continue making our efforts," Hashimoto said
The press in Tokyo greeted Soeharto's appointment the day before his swearing in yesterday with a slap in the face for his economic policies and a warning that the collapse of Indonesia could have a global impact.
Soeharto's plan to peg the rupiah to the dollar and tie the value of currency in circulation to its reserves "could pose a great risk to his nation's economy," the Daily Yomiuri said in an editorial.
"It is important to note that the impact of a full-scale catastrophe in the Indonesian economy would not only affect other Asian nations, but also the rest of the world," it said. "Needless to say, Japan would not be spared this worst-case scenario."
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the international community, including Japan, must urgently make Soeharto "understand real solutions to Indonesia's problems".
"If Indonesia's defiance of the IMF, Japan and the United States goes too far, it will only invite a tragedy, the country's isolation from the international community," the paper warned.
"The Soeharto regime should listen to advice from the international community and present a clear direction to say where the country will be heading in the future."
The conservative Sankei Shimbun said Soeharto's defiance of the IMF "is dangerous" and the first thing he should do "is to implement the IMF scheme".
Soeharto was stepping up his defiance of the United States and the IMF "out of pride", the paper said in an editorial.
"Japan must play a positive role to ease tensions between Soeharto, the IMF and the United States," it said. (prb)