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)