The minister-to-be and that telephone call

By Ahmad Junaidi and Sugianto Tandra

JAKARTA (JP): The announcement of cabinets have always contained an element of surprise, not least because those appointed have stoically held their tongues to even those in their families before the announcement by the President.

Former Army chief of staff Rudini said he had just adjusted to the world of business when the telephone call came, leading to his new position of minister of home affairs from 1988 to 1993.

"I was assigned to manage a holding company PT Truba (Tri Usaha Bakti) after I retired as the Army chief of staff in 1986. So I had adjusted myself as a businessman for two years before I was installed as a minister in 1988," he said.

"One day, I was telephoned by President Soeharto's adjutant. I think it was Yono (former ABRI general affairs chief of staff Lt. Gen. Suyono). He was my former subordinate.

"I was a little surprised when I was contacted. I knew that people who were contacted (in this manner) would usually be installed as ministers."

Rudini said the only possibility he could think of was the post of minister of defense because he had once been the Army chief of staff.

"I was asked to come the State Palace at 8 p.m. I had to drive my own car and arrive 10 minutes before schedule.

"I met Pak Harto. He asked me how long I had retired. Pak Harto then explained several national and strategic issues.

"But none of those issues related to security and defense."

Rudini was kept in the dark until the President mentioned then minister of home affairs Supardjo Rustam.

"Again, I was a bit surprised when Pak Harto said: "Pak Pardjo is often sick. You replace him."

"I was surprised. I did not understand political supervision (one of the Ministry of Home Affairs duties), laws related to domestic administration and so on."

Rudini said the President had asked him not to tell anyone until the installment.

"So I kept quiet. Even my wife did not know about it until my name was announced 12 days later.

"I had a bit of a headache as to where I should get books to learn faster about things related to the Ministry of Home Affairs."

Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, former state minister of administrative reforms and then state minister for the environment, remembers he recived the President's phone call around dawn.

It was in the fasting month, and Sarwono first received a call from one of the President's private assistants.

"He called to tell me the President was waiting on a specific phone number for me to call. I called and it was Soeharto himself.

"He lightly asked whether I had eaten my sahur (dawn breakfast before fasting) and I said yes.

"And then the President asked me if I still had the energy to assist him in his next cabinet (after his first ministerial posting).

"I said: 'If Bapak is still strong, why aren't I?

"Then he told me not to tell anybody that we had already been in telephone contact. And I didn't until a week later when the new line-up of cabinet ministers was announced."

Sarwono said there have been many politicians who were somehow fooled by calls asking them to meet the President, thinking they were summoned to his residence to be offered a ministerial post.

"Once they got to the President's residence they found they had not been invited at all," Sarwono said.