The persons behind president's accountability speech

The persons behind president's accountability speech

JAKARTA (JP): Who were the people behind the scenes, those
who compiled President B.J. Habibie's lengthy accountability
speech?

Generally, most speeches covering such a wide scope are a
combined effort of both formal government officials and the
president's special advisors and trusted colleagues.

Unlike his predecessor Soeharto, who usually assigned
minister/state secretary or his most senior coordinating
minister, Habibie appointed his close advisor Ahmad Watik
Pratiknya, and not Minister/State Secretary Muladi, to coordinate
the speechwriting.

"Until late this morning Pak Watik was still consulting with
the President on the draft of the speech," Habibie's spokeswoman
Dewi Fortuna Anwar told The Jakarta Post on Thursday afternoon,
less than 10 hours before Habibie presented his speech to the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on Thursday evening.

Watik's official position is secretary to Indonesia's vice
president. The country no longer has a vice president, after
Habibie, who held the post for barely three months, replaced
Soeharto on May 21 last year.

Watik was appointed to the position not long after Habibie
vacated his previous position.

From the Cabinet, Coordinating Minister for Political and
Security Affairs Feisal Tanjung, Indonesian Military (TNI)
Commander Gen. Wiranto were among the busiest ministers,
especially with problems concerning security and human rights
abuses, a reliable source said on Thursday.

"That is why the speech strongly protects the military," said
the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Indria Samego, a senior political researcher at the National
Institute of Sciences (LIPI), acknowledged his involvement in
drafting the speech. He confirmed his new position as one of
Habibie's advisors.

"It is up to my friends to judge whether my answer is biased.
I tried to encourage (Habibie) that each element in the
accountability report was not merely rhetoric," Indria said on
Thursday.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas prepared the section on
East Timor. Dewi, however, was also intensively involved in it.

On economic affairs, Habibie could not depend on former
coordinating minister for economy, finance and industry Ginandjar
Kartasasmita, since he left the Cabinet to become an MPR member.

Habibie's economic advisor, Umar Juoro, was intensively
involved in the speech-making process. Both Umar and Indria
attended the two Cabinet meetings on the preparation of the
speech this month.

According to Dewi, Habibie made several major changes to the
speech after he presented it to his Cabinet on Oct. 12.

Habibie apparently did not only involve government officials
in preparing his speech, but also his close relatives, including
his youngest brother Suyatim "Timmy" Abdurrachman Habibie. Timmy,
according to some officials, especially advised the president on
how he should read the speech with proper intonation.

"Ah, it is not true, the speech is the President's business,
not mine," Timmy told the Post at Habibie's residence on Thursday
evening.

Habibie finally had to use Soeharto's former translator Widodo
Sutiyo to translate his speech into English.

"I was just asked to help him in translating the speech into
English," said Widodo. (05/mds/prb)