Tutut launches 'Love Rupiah' drive

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto's eldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, sold U.S. dollars for rupiah yesterday in a highly publicized bid to restore confidence in the local currency.

She arrived at Bank Bumi Daya in Central Jakarta carrying a brown envelope containing dollars. She declined to say how much she sold, but an aide said it was US$50,000.

"I don't think it's necessary to say the amount of dollars I sold," she said. "The money was the remainder of funds for my children, who are now studying in the United States."

Hardiyanti, better known as Tutut, then called on the public and fellow business tycoons to sell their dollars for rupiah.

"Let us all exchange our dollars for rupiah," she said. She said she sold her dollars because she was an Indonesian citizen who loved her country very much.

"I love the rupiah," she said. "And I also keep rupiah in the bank."

She dismissed a suggestion that she sold her dollars in order to profit from the high dollar rate yesterday.

"It's not because the dollar is high or low," she said. "(My) intention is to help the country and the people. We should value our currency... our rupiah," she said.

"If we don't appreciate the rupiah, who will? Please follow my example," she said.

She rejected a reporter's suggestion that as a businesswoman she had been involved in foreign currency trading. "Why would I jeopardize my country by doing such a thing?" she said. "I can't do and don't like foreign currency trading."

She said the amount of money she sold was insignificant, compared to the amount of money the country needed to overcome the crisis.

"However, God willing, it will help to secure the national currency if everybody, businesspeople in particular, support and follow this move," she said.

Asked whether her brothers and sisters -- most of whom were also business tycoons -- would follow suit, Hardiyanti said she was sure they would do the same thing.

Earlier, reporters covering her activities queried why she had not emulated public figures in Thailand and South Korea who had sold their dollars and waged massive campaigns to restore confidence in their battered currencies. (imn)