Indonesian Labor Leader says stop squandering IMF aid (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

06/08/98

Indonesian Labor Leader says stop squandering IMF aid

BY JOHN ZAROCOSTAS JOURNAL OF COMMERCE SPECIAL

GENEVA -- Indonesia's top trade union leader called Monday for tough
conditions to accompany any future aid by the International Monetary Fund
after the agency admitted billions had been squandered by the ousted
Suharto regime. 

Muchtar Pakpahan, President of Indonesia's independent trade union SBSI,
said the IMF's chief for Asia and the Pacific, Hubert Neiss, told him that
$4 billion given by the agency between Dec. and April could not be
accounted for. 

"The money is gone, disappeared," said Mr. Pakpahan, who was released from
prison on May 25 and considered a key figure in bringing to an end the 32
year dictatorship of President Suharto on May 21. 

The one-hour meeting between the IMF's top trouble shooter on Asia and Mr.
Pakpahan took place last Saturday morning at Jakarta's Grand Hyatt hotel. 

An IMF spokesman in Washington was not in a position to confirm Mr. 
Pakpahan's remarks attributed to Mr. Neiss, as he was traveling. 

Asia's financial meltdown marked by poor financial structures and crony
links between business leaders and the Suharto regime brought the nation
of 200 million to its knees. 

Indonesia is a major exporter of oil, natural gas, coffee, rubber, palm
oil, plywood and of textiles, apparel, and footwear. 

Mr. Pakpahan said the the IMF should not give any funds to the new regime
of President P.J. Habibie, unless it is committed to a clear agenda of
political and economic reforms. 

Any IMF funds must include a transparency mechanism that would state how
they will be used, distributed, and controlled, he said. 

But Mr. Pakpahan said in the next couple of weeks the Indonesian trade
union movement will launch demonstrations to have the Habibie regime
replaced by a transitional government until elections are held in 1999. 

The labor leader said the unions want to force Mr. Habibie to hold a
special session (of the consultative) assembly or to force him to step
down. 

Mr. Habibie wants to hold the special assembly next year and hold general
elections in 2000, which Mr. Pakpahan says is too long. 

He told an audience of over five hundred labor ministers, diplomats and
labor leaders, which included AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, that "my
next struggle is how to stop Habibie. He is also the source of corruption
and nepotism." 

Mr. Pakpahan alleged that Suharto was still calling the shots of the
Habibie government from behind the scenes, and added he wants to bring the
former dictator to court.