Siswono says crucial to end corruption in six months

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto has six months to eliminate corruption from the administration or the nation could plunge into chaos, a former cabinet minister said yesterday.

Siswono Yudohusodo, who served two five-year terms under Soeharto until February, said that besides embezzlement and collusive practices, the President should eliminate nepotism from the administration completely.

"If he fails, the political and economic conditions could turn for the worse," Siswono said at a discussion on the origins of the economic crisis.

He said the President, who was reelected for a seventh five- year term in March, had until about October to prove that he was capable of resolving the current economic and political crisis.

The economic reform package negotiated with the International Monetary Fund, he added, should be fully implemented to help establish a clean government.

If there are no results in the coming months, students may intensify their protests, more people could lose their jobs and crime rates could increase, he said.

The fight against corruption, collusion and nepotism should start from the very top, Siswono said.

The government, for example, should stop giving business privileges to particular individuals or groups, he said.

The government not only needed the IMF's US$43 billion bailout package but also the support from all the people to rebuild the economy, he said.

Siswono, a real estate developer, was first recruited into the cabinet in 1988 to serve as minister of public housing. In 1993 he was appointed minister of transmigration.

Although he has now resumed his business activities, his views and analysis of the country's political and economic situations are still widely sought.

Yesterday's discussion was organized by Yayasan Insan Politika, a foundation at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. Economist Faisal Basri was the other guest speaker.

Siswono said that what originally started as a financial crisis had shifted into a crisis of confidence, one that put the government's political legitimacy in doubt.

He said the crisis had its origins in the unfair political system and government mismanagement which allowed corruption and collusion to flourish.

He said the national development program of the past 30 years had been wrong to focus solely on the economy, while ignoring political and social development.

Siswono, who is a member of the People's Consultative Assembly, said the way the country recruited its political representatives should be changed to truly reflect the people's aspirations.

He said that as a result of the current recruitment system, all 1,000 Assembly members supported the reelection of the President in March.

Public figures critical of the system, like Muhammadiyah chairman Amien Rais who called for an alternative president, did not sit in the Assembly, he said.

There should also be a limit on the number of terms a president can serve, he added.

Siswono was skeptical over the current government policy to stabilize the rupiah's exchange rate by keeping interest rates very high, warning that the policy could plunge the nation into an even deeper crisis.

"The rupiah has gained ground in the last few weeks because of the high interest rates. This has weakened business activities and fueled even higher inflation rates. The high inflation will, in turn, cause the rupiah to fall again," he said. (rms)