Tutut launches 'Love Rupiah' drive

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)