9th August 2002:
President Try Sutrisno accompanied by met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Ginandjar Kartasasmita, the topic at hand was the world’s reaction the government’s operation against and banning of Jemaah Islamiyah. Ginandjar highlighted the reactions of the Islamic world. There were statements of support from Turkey, Nigeria, Algeria, Qatar, and Bahrain while an ambiguous statement came out from Saudi Arabia.
“The most negative reaction, if not outright condemnation, came from them, Mr. President”, said Ginandjar handing a newspaper featuring Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak’s visit to Pakistan, his meeting with Chief Executive of Pakistan Aziz Khan and their joint condemnation of “Anti-Islamic acts by Muslims” though of course they did not specify who they are condemning.
“How did the United States react?” asked the President.
“You get President McCain praising what you have done in a press conference but no change as yet in the Administration’s stance in letting us have the 28 F-16s”, explained Ginandjar.
The President smiled at this and nodded his head.
“All right”, he said “We better make the most of our trip in early September then.”
10th August 2002:
In Solo, Central Java, Chairman of Muhammadiyah Amien Rais was seen arriving at Chairman of the DPR Harmoko’s personal house. They talked about the events of the past two weeks agreeing that the President had gotten stronger after bringing the forest concessionaires to order and taking the steps against Jemaah Islamiyah. Harmoko said that the President’s position as leader of the PKPI and leader of the PKPI-PPP Coalition but Amien Rais looked more serious.
“It doesn’t change the seat count inside the MPR, he still need both of our helps and he’ll need to declare his support for your re-election as Chairman of the DPR if he wants to have it”, said Amien.
“
Mas Amien, I am thankful that at least for the moment, I have your support and the support of the PKPI and the PPP’s Muhammadiyah members”, said Harmoko.
11th August 2002:
Treasurer of the PKPB Akbar Tandjung met with Chairwoman of the PKPB Tutut Soeharto at Cendana Street. After some pleasantries, Tutut asked Akbar what he wanted to talk about to which the latter began expressing his discomfort at the comments made by Secretary of the PKPB ZA Maulani that the steps taken by the government against Jemaah Islamyah was made under American pressure. Akbar said that the PKPB should publicly express their support for the steps the government has taken.
“Yes,
Bang Akbar, but the Secretary of the PKPB is just expressing a view that exists in this nation”, argued Tutut.
“I understand, Madam Chairwoman, but we’re no longer seeking votes from the general populace; you’re seeking to be the next President of the Republic”, argued Akbar “Certainly you can do better.”
Tutut was not moved and Akbar was left making a mental note.
12th August 2002:
The President, Vice President JB Sumarlin, members of the cabinet, and their wives today arrived en masse at Tanah Kusir Cemetery in South Jakarta to pay respects at the tomb of former Vice President Mohammad Hatta, this being Hatta’s 100th birthday. The President and First Lady was seen laying flowers on Hatta’s tomb. The President gave a short speech lauding Hatta’s achievements and Minister of Social Affairs Meutia Hatta, acting as a representative of the Hatta family, also delivered a speech thanking the government for the respect it has given Hatta.
The President was seen walking out of the cemetery with Meutia Hatta by her side. Meutia laughed when the President asked her to stay in the cabinet rather than become a DPR member saying that it would take something major for her to change her mind and stay in the cabinet.
“President Try, given that the two people who intend to challenge you for the presidency are seeing themselves as the respective heirs of President Soekarno and President Soeharto, do you see yourself as the heir of Vice President Hatta?” asked a reporter.
“I think Bung Hatta belongs to the nation, he and indeed President Soekarno and President Soeharto does not belong to any partisan cause”, said the President “I don’t see myself as the political or ideological heir to Bung Hatta and I don’t intend to achieve that status for myself. I think it’s possible to respect and revere President Soekarno, President Soeharto, and Vice President Hatta yet at the same time pursue one’s own path and one’s own vision towards the nation.”
Not far behind them, Minister of Agriculture Sarwono Kusumaatmadja was asked the same question and told the President’s answer.
“I think the President’s correct”, replied Sarwono “Soekarno, Soeharto, and Hatta are great men but what I don’t understand is how the Chairwoman of the PKPB and the Chairwoman of the PNI can say with a straight face, there’s nothing to improve upon? With that kind of mindset, the forest concessionaires will just continue to run around being non-compliant because what the government had done with them would not have been done under the previous government.”
13th August 2002:
In a press conference, Minister of Home Affairs Harsudiono Hartas announced that the election of all 135 Regional Delegates by the Provincial DPRDs have now been completed. The Regional Delegates are non-partisans who will represent the provinces in the MPR and required at least 70% of the votes to be declared elected. They will be inaugurated along with the other MPR delegates on 1st October.
Harsudiono said there are two groups of MPR delegates that remains to be named:
*The MPR delegates representing ABRI which will include among them ABRI members who will sit in the DPR. These delegates will be named by the President with advice from the Commander of ABRI.
*The MPR delegates that are the
Utusan Golongan or the Group Delegates, those that are appointed to represent people from all walks of life. In accordance with the law, the President will submit a list of names to the DPR for approval and approval from 80% of the DPR will be required for the submitted name to be accepted as an MPR Delegate.
At a toll road turnstile in Semarang, Central Java, the President accompanied by Minister of Public Works Rachmat Witoelar, and Governor of Central Java M. Ma’ruf inaugurated the Semarang-Batang Toll Road.
In his speech, the President highlighted that with the opening of this toll road, it was now possible to reach Semarang from Jakarta and vice versa within a few hours and expressed his hope and wish that the toll road will encourage economic activity between the two cities as well as between Jakarta and Central Java.
14th August 2002:
The President convened a meeting attended by Sumarlin, Minister of Economics and National Development Planning Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, Minister of Finance Mar’ie Muhammad, Governor of BI Boediono and State Secretary Edi Sudrajat.
Boediono reported that since the interest rate rise on 1st July, the currency has strengthened and has stabilized at around the $1= Rp. 4,135-Rp. 4,140 mark. It seems however that most of the strengthening of the currency happened in the last two weeks with the President’s “triumphs” over the concessionaires and over Jemaah Islamiyah. This shows that the lost of confidence shown in the Rupiah in the last few months was mostly a political phenomenon.
Mar’ie said that from his end, tax offices are seeing people applying for taxpayer numbers again. There is a sense that, at least for the next 7 months, their money will be secure if they pay tax to the government.
Dorodjatun said that the first five months of the year, the main contributor to economic activity in Indonesia has been the election with everything from the printing of t-shirts and posters, to the food and drinks to be distributed during campaign events and to people flying around the country to campaign doing their part for the economy. After the election, tourism took over as the main engine and produced strong numbers as far foreign tourist arrivals were concerned; with the currency losing some of its value meant that it became cheaper to visit Indonesia again. Dorodjatun concluded by saying that Indonesia will have another strong year economically in 2002.
“Is there anything that we should be concerned about on the economic front?” asked the President.
It was this that got Sumarlin speaking saying that Indonesia might want to consider its economic stance on an international level. Sumarlin told the story of how he met Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin and Prime Minister of Australia Peter Costello at Jacques Chirac’s funeral last month and that this was the topic of conversation. Martin in particular said that since Indonesia has been given a 10-year moratorium on debt payments, it would only be reasonable to expect tariff reductions.
Another world leader Sumarlin met at the funeral was President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso who came with Governor of Maranhao Roseana Sarney. The two Brazilians spoke about how they want to go around to the BRICI nations making the argument that the BRICI should be a formal grouping with summits and the like. By writing Russia's Primakov and India's Vajpayee had expressed interest.
The President chuckled.
“The stance we must take is so that we do not become an object in international political struggles, instead we must continue to be a subject which has the right to decide what our principles should be, which has the right to fight for our own goals”, he said.
“That passage would be from Vice President Hatta’s Rowing Between Two Reefs, Mr. President”, said Sumarlin.
The President laughed at that.
“Precisely, Mr. Vice President”, said the President “And if we want to base ourselves on that, we should follow our own path…that means pushing for the implementation of AFTA.”
The President went on explaining that Indonesia’s decision to take in Shwe Mann and his followers has been seen by friends in the region as a sign of Indonesia’s political leadership. It seems though that the mark of regional leadership is economic and the President pointed to the meetings he had with Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong and also with members of the Vietnamese communist government.
Dorodjatun said that AFTA is an economic agenda of ASEAN that has become long overdue. He confirmed the President’s statement that countries in the region had asked for economic leadership, most notably Thailand who originally proposed it back in 1991.
Sumarlin asked if AFTA will be extended to members of the Jakarta Bloc only.
“It would be extended to all members of ASEAN”, replied the President “The Jakarta Bloc has 5 nations in it. Five is half of ASEAN but half is not a majority and a majority is not all…we don’t have the strength to stand up to China much less the other great powers our own. We need to “borrow” the strength of the other nations in the region so that we are at least on firmer ground.
We want to push Singapore and Brunei off the fence and into our side with AFTA; if Chile can make a lot of progress with them on free trade negotiations, certainly we can do better. As far as Cambodia, Myanmar, and Malaysia are concerned, well we want to at least put them on the defensive so that the onus will be on them to show that they are willing to cooperate.”
15th August 2002:
At the Presidential Palace, the President presided over a ceremony to hand out decorations and awards to the nation’s best sons and daughters.
From the ceremony, the President went to his office where Chief of BAKIN Ari Sudewo awaited. Ari began by saying that the government dealt a strong blow to Jemaah Islamiyah and its membership last week. It is all but certain now that Jemaah Islamiyah’s members will go underground for at least the short and medium term and not even maintain the pretense of going around from place to place probing around for a gap, secretly planning. BAKIN will remain vigilant but Jemaah Islamiyah is not a threat.
Ari was pleased but the President was not and the latter moved on the meeting to Indonesia’s interactions with Australia in the aftermath as well as the comments made by President of Palau Tommy Remengesau about Oceania.
“If we want to assume the mantle of leadership in Southeast Asia and then use that mantle of leadership to stand up to China, is it safe to turn our back on this region?” asked the President.
Ari Sudewo looked as though he was calculating something in his head.
“Frankly speaking we can’t, Mr. President” said Ari Sudewo “And we can’t turn our back on this region not only because the attitudes that some of the nations in this region has towards us, but because your conversation with the President of Palau confirms that somewhere in that vast ocean, the OPM is hiding and planning something.”
“What do we do?” asked the President.
“Australia is ambivalent, New Zealand provides refuge to the Timor Leste Government-In-Exile, only Fiji and Palau are reliable, and the rest are either supportive or sympathetic to the OPM”, replied Ari “But you’re forgetting one piece of the puzzle that’s wavering in the middle and could go either way…”
“No…”, said the President.
“…either you hold this piece of the puzzle and you got yourself a buffer against Australia, against Oceania, and against the OPM hiding somewhere in all of that or you don’t hold it and it’s Australia, Oceania, and the OPM that has a buffer against us”, continued Ari. “Your interactions with the Australians recently shows all too clearly that they’ve done their calculations about us, that they have seen the possibility of..."
"Whatever worst-case scenario they've come up with, it won't come to that", said the President "I have no interest in Papua New Guinea."
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Vice President Hatta’s birthday is 12th August 1902.
Jakarta and Semarang connected by toll road a lot earlier than in OTL.
The quote Try reads comes from Hatta’s famous speech Rowing Between Two Reefs. It’s common to say that the speech is about foreign policy but Hatta covers a lot of ground in it. The quote cane be found on page 9 of the following document
https://serbasejarah.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/mendajung-antara-dua-karang.pdf
This will be my last one for some time. Real life getting really busy for the next few weeks at least.