Soeharto's age his undoing: Habibie

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie has said his predecessor Soeharto grew too old to sense the mood of the people, and that his own relative youth put him in a better position to lead the country.

In his first newspaper interview since becoming president, Habibie told the New York Times that he had not communicated with 76-year-old Soeharto, whom he once described as his political mentor, since the handover on May 21.

"It's a natural process, aging, you know," the 62-year-old President said. "I don't want to insult (him) because he has done a lot for the country. But he's not a young man.

"The students are my children and the students are his grandsons. The gap between father and son is less than the gap between grandfather and grandson. It is a generation gap, O.K.?"

The interview appeared on the front page of yesterday's International Herald Tribune. Habibie also gave an interview to Cable News Network (CNN) which was broadcast yesterday.

Habibie disclosed that repeated requests to meet with Soeharto the morning he was promoted from vice president were rejected.

After he took the oath of office, Soeharto "looked at me, he shook hands, not a single word, just a smile. That's all".

Although Habibie defended Soeharto against criticism of his wealth, saying the former president was frugal, he denounced Soeharto's children for their "self-enrichment with a feudal culture that treated them like royalty".

Defending his own family's fortune, the German-trained aircraft engineer said his relatives were highly educated and talented people and that their wealth had been earned fairly.

Habibie said Indonesians should look to the future rather than engage in "Wild West" justice in hunting for Soeharto's wealth.

"If you dig into the past, then the past is unlimited, and I have limited resources."

Goal

He defined his goal as to restore public confidence and attract foreign investment.

"Now you have another person, you have another president.

"You have another economic team. You have transparency. You could never talk to President Soeharto the way you can talk to me," he said. "I am not the king."

In his interview with CNN, Habibie said his role as President was "to bring in the shortest time possible the economy back and to improve the democracy".

Many people were more worried about "their rice bowls, their homes, to live in peace, the future for their children" rather than the question of who was president, he said.

He likened his newfound role as a reformer to counterparts Boris Yeltsin in Russia and China's Zhu Rongji.

Habibie said a new general election would be held by the end of 1999, and a new People's Consultative Assembly would be convened to elect a new president and vice president.

Asked whether he would run again, he responded that he would consider his main mission accomplished if he brought economic recovery and political reform to Indonesia "as soon as possible".