IMF officials meet with Indon opposition leaders (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

IMF officials meet with Indonesian opposition leaders
JAKARTA, June 19 (AFP) - Top IMF officials on Saturday began a series of
meetings here with Indonesia's opposition leaders, starting with more than
two hours of talks with presidential hopeful Megawati Sukarnoputri.
The IMF's first deputy managing director Stanley Fischer and Asia Pacific
Director Hubert Neiss, who Friday voiced the hope that they could work with
the winners of Indonesia's June 7 elections, met Megawati at a South
Jakarta
hotel, an AFP reporter said.
Megawati, the popular leader of the Indonesian Decomcracy Party-Struggle
(PDIP), which has a commanding lead in the June 7 polls, was accompanied at
the talks by her chief economic advisor Kwik Kian Gie.
Emerging from the meeting, Fischer told journalists they had discussed the
country's economic situation "as the IMF sees it."
"We discussed possible economic scenarios in the future for Indonesia. The
importance of maintenance of confidence," as well as Kwik's proposal for
fixing the exchange rate of the Indonesian rupiah, he said.
Neiss said those present agreed that "under the present conditions, the
present scenario of the floating rate works well.
"So there's no need for change now."
Neiss said Megawati had "agreed with the basic (IMF) strategy and therefore
I
have no doubt she will continue" the reform program.
"There is no need to change the current strategy," he said. "Of course
details will always change. The program is reviewed every two months. and
there will always be changes."
The Asia Pacific director also said he was struck by the PDIP's "great
stress
on improving economic instuititions, which is important for restarting
economic development."
Fischer and Neiss were later scheduled to meet the leaders and officials of
the two parties whose poll results asure them of a strong presence in
parliament, if not a place in a coalition government.
They are the National Awakening Party (PKB) of Adburrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid,
lying second with nearly 50 percent of the votes counted, and the National
Mandate Party of reformist Amien Rais which is fifth.
A third meeting was scheduled later Saturday with the ruling Golkar Party,
which is trying to retain its grip on the parliament through wooing
coalition
partners.
After meeting with President B.J. Habibie on Friday, Fischer and Neiss said
they would be urging the opposition to continue with IMF programs adopted
by
the Habibie government along with a 46-billion-dollar bailout program.
"We will work together with the new government and if it wants to continue
with policies that we can support, we will support. And I expect we will,"
Fischer said after the two-hour meeting with Habibie.