The Riady connection

The American media's disclosure that Indonesian billionaire James Riady of the Lippo Group has been making financial contributions to the Democratic Party's campaign coffers is not new. The Wall Street Journal reported it as far back as March. But the contribution has suddenly become a hot presidential campaign issue thanks the Republican camp's strategy of attacking the personality of President Bill Clinton in its attempt to unseat him in next month's election.

In itself the contributions, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, are insignificant since the amount is small compared to the millions spent during the election campaign. But linked to other issues, it has the potential to become a major scandal, which, in the words of House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, "makes Watergate look tiny."

The Republicans are questioning Riady's link to, and possible influence over, the Clinton administration. They have linked the contribution to the appointment in the Democratic Party of a former top Lippo Group employee, John Huang. Then there was the U.S. Export-Import Bank's letters of credit for $900,000 to Lippo Bank; and at one time the U.S. bank even agreed to finance a huge power plant project in China for the Indonesian conglomerate, as disclosed by Newsweek.

Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole is now asking whether the Riady contributions affected Clinton's foreign policy, particularly in reference to East Timor. Gingrich meanwhile has threatened congressional and criminal investigations into these contributions.

The Democratic Party, for its part, has denied any suggestion of impropriety. White House spokesman Mike McCurry has pointed out that President Clinton has known James Riady since his time as Arkansas governor, and that the contributions were all legal. On the accusations about accepting foreign donations, President Clinton only responded that "it's election time."

We will probably hear more revelations and accusations about the Riady connection in the run up to the Nov. 5 election. In the third presidential campaign debate in San Diego, scheduled for today, Senator Dole is bound to raise the issue.

However, to suggest that Riady has exerted influence on the U.S. administration's foreign policy is probably stretching the argument a little too far. Riady is a private businessman and what he does with his money, whether it is proper or not, is likely to be motivated by a desire to promote his own business empire, rather than promoting Indonesia's interests. Lippo Group is not the only Indonesian conglomerate that has expanded its horizons and gone global.

Whatever the outcome of the debate on the issue, and whoever wins the November election, we hope existing bilateral relations between Indonesia and the United States will not deteriorate because of it.

No doubt some of the charges are mere electioneering, and hopefully they will cease once the election is over. Whether or not there should be a congressional investigation is another matter.

So far, no one has suggested that the contribution is illegal; it is accepted Riady simply exploited loopholes that exist in U.S. electoral law. But before anyone answers the question whether this is proper or not, the same question should probably be asked about the role of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose history of influencing political events in foreign countries is unmatched.

Compared to the CIA's extensively documented covert operations to channel funds to political organizations in Indonesia in the 1950s, James Riady's contribution is a bagatelle. And at least, it is transparent, and until proven otherwise, legal.