Sick Cabinet, corruption hinder Mega's performance

Sick Cabinet, corruption hinder Mega's performance

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The prolonged friction among the economic ministers and the
corrupt bureaucracy constitute two main factors contributing to
the bad performance of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's
government, according to the research and development center of
the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Sukowaluyo, chief of the research and development center, the
weak coordination among the president's economic team has created
sectoral egoism and even, increased friction among the ministers
that are connected to fiscal matters.

"The sectoral egoism has emerged over the several past months
and it is a result of a lack of coordination among the ministers
that deal with economic issues. And this has affected the
performance of the administration.

"The economic ministers appointed the president were termed,
'the dream team' but they have become the dreaming team. We are
witnessing real friction between State Minister for National
Planning and Development Kwik Kian Gie and Coordinating Minister
for Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti over the IMF recovery
program and also between Kwik and State Minister of State
Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi," he said here on Saturday.

Sukowaluyo who was accompanied by the center's secretary
Subagyo Anam and deputy secretary Didi Supriyanto, made the
statement in a press conference to expose the party's evaluation
of the government's performance.

He said the party had given two alternatives for the president
to cope with the Cabinet problems. "If the president wants to
improve her Cabinet, she must change some people, on the other
hand, if she takes the short time of one year and half ahead into
consideration, ibu shouldn't do it."

Subagyo Anam said that the government's bad performance also
had a lot to do with the prevalent corruption in the executive
and legislative bodies, as well as the judiciary.

"We have recommended that the president reform the bureaucracy
and leave high echelon positions in the bureaucracy to
professionals.

"Speaking frankly, almost all state officials and public
servants are corrupt, but Attorney General M.A. Rachman has an
even worse situation because his (corruption) case has been
exposed to the public," he said, adding that the corruption had
also infected the House of Representatives and the judiciary
system.

Central Bank Governor Sjachril had his corruption conviction
overturned on appeal, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung was convicted
for corruption, but was not ordered to go to jail as he filed for
an appeal immediately.

Meanwhile, Kwik Kian Gie hailed the democratic atmosphere in
the Cabinet, saying he would continue his opposition to the
government's unpopular policy, including the IMF's financial
scheme and the presidential instruction to effectively exonerate
large debtors who have not paid back trillions of bank bailout
funds, locally called R&D.

"I will continue to fight against the IMF program until it is
halted and oppose the government's policy to free troubled
debtors from crimes," he said.

Kwik said the IMF scheme must be halted because it was not
helping the economy recover. "So far, we have used US$12 billion
from IMF just to keep out currency relatively stable and we could
have a total of between $10,000 trillion and $15,000 trillion
more in debt to the IMF unless the aid scheme is halted.

"I want it to be cut now, but others in my party want to cease
all extensions as of Nov. 2003," he said.

Kwik also expressed his disappointment about the government's
controversial presidential instruction on R&D, and that
exonerating debtors was an injustice and a strong indication of
the absence of legal certainty.

"The troubled debtors should be brought to court should they
fail to pay their huge debt," he said.