30th November 1999:
Minister of Agriculture Sarwono Kusumaatmadja has laughed off the idea that if there was economic recovery, credit should belong to Soeharto.
“The President has abolished clove monopoly, the ineffective National Car policy, and gotten the BLBI recipients to repay the bailout money they’ve received from the government”, said Sarwono “If President Soeharto looks good, it would be because he’s lucky he has President Try to clean up after him.”
1st December 1999:
After taking a day off, President Try Sutrisno began conducting his duties again, starting with a breakfast with Vice President JB Sumarlin. Sumarlin agreed with the President’s strategy of delaying to take sides in the fight for the IMF Managing Director’s position and waiting until there’s definitive result on economic growth for 1999.
Sumarlin also reports that the government’s close on concluding amendments to all 26 electricity contracts signed between private businesses and the PLN since 1994 which has put undue financial burdens on the government.
2nd December 1999:
Speaking at a P4 Training Session at the University of Indonesia, Chairman of BP-7 Soegiarto declared that the ideological challenge for Pancasila remain numerous. Soegiarto identified those “seeking to divide the nation through sectarianism and religious identities with the aim of replacing Pancasila with a religion”.
He announced that it will be the government’s strategy next year to focus on university campuses in terms of P4 Training because it is here that such “damaging mindsets” have begun to take root.
3rd December 1999:
The President had Friday Prayer and Lunch with Chairman of DPR Harmoko. Harmoko spoke about how the Telecommunications Bill was doing in the DPR and reported that there was questioning from those formerly of the Hartono Caucus but not obstructionism.
“Then we should get this bill and as many other bills as we can passed before this peace comes to an end, Mr. Chairman”, said Try.
“There’s no doubt they’re making sure that there is peace but after Tutut installs as many of her supporters as possible as Chairmen in the provincial branches, I think hostilities will resume”, explained Harmoko “I hope you have a gameplan, Mr. President.”
5th December 1999:
Chairwoman of Golkar Tutut Soeharto along with the entire Soeharto family paid their respects to Soeharto and Mrs. Soeharto’s tombs in Solo, Central Java today to mark both the 2nd Anniversary of Soeharto’s death and to pay respects to elders’ tombs prior to the start of Ramadan. Governor of Central Java Prabowo Subianto was there with them and he took the opportunity to speak to Tutut.
“Something’s wrong with the Golkar Branch in this Province,
Mbak”, said Prabowo “I thought we had them under control but in recent months they’ve gotten their spirit back again. Something’s not right.”
“What do you mean they're getting their spirit back?” asked Tutut.
“They’re getting on me about how Central Java’s economic recovery wouldn’t have been possible without the President’s policies” said Prabowo.
6th December 1999:
Try met with Minister of Finance Mar’ie Muhammad. The minister presented to the President about the Draft Budget, due to be delivered next month at the DPR, and its latest developments. There was something else that weighed on his mind.
“Mr. President, I’ve been summoned as a witness for Tommy Soeharto’s trial by the prosecutors”, said Mar’ie “What I’ve got to say may reflect badly on your predecessor. Can I ask for your advice.”
“Tell them what you know”, replied Try “This is a legal matter, not a political one.”
7th December 1999:
At the Aceh Provincial DPRD Building accompanied by Minister of Home Affairs Harsudiono Hartas, State Secretary Edi Sudrajat and in the presence of Governor of Aceh Syamsuddin Mahmud, the President signed the Special Administrative Region of Aceh Bill into Law. The event took placed on the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Province of Aceh.
After the signing ceremony, Try delivered a speech to the Aceh DPRD in which he said among other things:
“1999 has been the year in which the Central Government re-examined its delegation of responsibilities with the regional governments, re-arranged the share of the revenues to be received to regional governments including allocating shares of the LNG revenues to Aceh and more importantly, provided legal basis to our existing 3 Special Administrative Regions and adding 2 more Special Administrative Regions. We hope that these steps and the fulfillment of these steps will make all 27 provinces and all 301 regencies and municipalities feel a sense of belonging and a sense of being a part of this beloved and great Republic of ours.”
8th December 1999:
At Grand Hyatt Hotel, the President opened the Infastructure Summit. The summit was the brainchild of Chairman of KADIN Aburizal Bakrie. The President attended accompanied by Minister of Economics and National Development Planning Soedradjad Djiwandono and Minister of Public Works Rachmat Witoelar.
Try delivered the keynote speech, stating to the audience both domestic and foreign alike that infrastructure development must necessarily be opened because the nation’s size and the large task of providing infrastructure, infrastructure development must necessarily be opened to the private sector. Try said that it was his intention to give private investors larger shares of projects in Java so that he could direct the government’s funds to eastern Indonesia.
This being the first day of Ramadan, the President hosted a fast breaking at the Presidential Palace attended by cabinet ministers, heads of the agencies, and the top brass of ABRI. Delivering his speech to all those present, Try called upon the nation to use Ramadan to contemplate what the nation had gone through in recent times and draw lessons from it.
9th December 1999:
The President arrived at Bandung at the head of two full buses containing the attendees of the Infrastructure Summit. Accompanied by Soedradjad Djiwandono, Rachmat Witoelar, Governor of West Java Muzani Syukur, and Commander of the West Java Regional Military Command Agus Wirahadikusumah, Try inaugurated the Pasupati Flyover Bridge. In his speech, Try pointed out in all attendance that the bridge was partially funded by the Emir of Kuwait Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah’s grant. He said that now other projects are available to be funded by private investors.
The duet of Sumarlin and Minister of Mining and Energy Djiteng Marsudi today successfully concluded renegotiations of 26 electricity plants contract. It had been 17 months since the President first ordered Djiteng to renegotiate the contracts and 4 months since he asked the Vice President to be involved in the process as well. Djiteng, who got the duty of explaining what happened, was very pleased.
“Basically, these 26 electricity plants contracts signed by our state-owned PLN and these private companies have been renegotiated. Now these private companies have agreed to sell electricity to the PLN at a price that is fair and won’t put undue burden on the PLN and the State”, explained Djiteng.
“How did you get them to sell electricity to the PLN at a price that’s fair?” asked a reporter.
“We told them that we’d offer the projects to be taken over by the people who came to the Infrastructure summit”, said Djiteng.
10th December 1999:
In an interview with CNN, Managing Director of IMF Michel Camdessus explained that his resignation will take effect on 9th February 2000 and that Stanley Fischer will be the Acting Managing Director of the IMF. He scoffed when asked if he was being too harsh on Indonesia.
“This crisis is not just limited to Indonesia. It has affected other nations in Southeast Asia; it has affected South Korea and Russia; to some extent Brazil and Argentina are also suffering the effects of this crisis. We the IMF can’t operate to the maximum of our capacity if we’re constantly being faced negotiations and being asked for the same “leniencies” received by Indonesia. Most recently, I have the Prime Minister of Thailand asking for those leniences, I don’t what went on between him and the President of Indonesia in the past few weeks, but this can’t go on.”
11th December 1999:
Breaking his silence after 7 months of retirement, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas wrote an article for The Jakarta Post saying that Indonesia has reached this point in its history because of Soeharto and Try’s collective efforts:
“President Try has protected Indonesia against the impact of the Asian Financial Crisis by taking the right steps and making the right decisions that much is true. But an important part of this Try-led economic recovery has got to be attributed to the leniency which he was able to receive from the IMF. This leniency was possible because nations like Singapore, Australia, and Japan took Indonesia seriously as a nation to provide backing to Indonesia in its dealings wih the IMF. This would not have been possible without President Soeharto’s commitment of economic development which in turn gave legitimacy to Indonesia as a nation in the international world. The Indonesia of today was, and is, a result of the two presidents’ collective effort.”
13th December 1999:
Mari’e Muhammad testified in front of Tommy Soeharto’s trial at the District Court of South Jakarta. The trial was closed to the public since September with news of developments in the trial conveyed to the public through a Department of Legal Affairs Spokesperson. On this occasion, the spokesperson was terse and brief in his statement to the press.
Minister of Transportation Soerjadi Soedirja, State Minister of Urban Development Giri Suseno, Governor of Jakarta Sutiyoso, Governor of East Java Haris Sudarno, and Governor of North Sumatra Syamsir Siregar held a joint press conference in which they announced that the government intends to import 70 buses next year which will take to the streets in Jakarta, Surabaya, and Medan. The plan represents the government’s commitment to improve public transport in cities.
14th December 1999:
Mar’ie Muhammad’s testimony was published online on a website ran by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), an organization of journalists not recognized by the government. The testimony was not so much damning on Tommy Soeharto as it was on his father. Mar’ie revealed that in the landswap deal between Bulog and Tommy’s Goro Batara Sakti corporation, Mar’ie said that based on a regulation he had signed as Minister of Finance, any landswap deal conducted by the government must go through a tender process. Soeharto had overruled that by ordering Mar’ie to approve the landswap deal in which his son had been involved in.
Later in the day, Minister of Legal Affairs Albert Hasibuan and Minister of Information, Post, and Telecommunications Oka Mahendra together with Edi Sudrajat fronted the press after meeting with the President. Hasibuan said that the content of the testimony as published by the website was correct and admitted that the Department of Legal Affairs Spokesperson had not done a good job conveying Mar’ie’s testimony. Oka Mahendra reaffirmed that the information was correct but said that the matter at hand is about but whether or not the information can cause disturbances in society.
When asked by a foreign journalist if this revelation will change the President’s stance towards his predecessor, Edi spoke up. “The President is in the business of recovering state money that the prosecutors are arguing may have been loss. He is not in the business of denouncing President Soeharto.”
15th December 1999:
Sumarlin and Minister of Civil Service Reform Kuntoro Mangkusubroto joined a busload of civil servants and staffers from the former’s office to go on a shopping trip to Tanah Abang. Speaking to the press corps covering the trip, Sumarlin reminded all civil servants and non-civil servants alike to spend their money these end-of-year holidays.
As the cameras panned around at the large amount of people crowding around Tanah Abang, Sumarlin was asked if this meant that the economy has recovered. Sumarlin said that he will leave it to the President to declare whether or not the economy has recovered or not.
16th December 1999:
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi of Japan announced that he will be nominating Eisuke Sakakibara, former Japanese Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, for the IMF Managing Director’s positions. Eisuke had an anti-IMF view and was an advocate of the idea that there should be an Asian Monetary Fund to accommodate the needs of Asian nations.
At the Presidential Palace, Harsudiono Hartas met with the President. He introduced the two men he brought with him as:
*Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Afifuddin Thaib, who had been elected and sworn in as Governor of Bengkulu.
*Drs. Hasip Kalimuddin Syam who had been elected and sworn in as Governor of Jambi.
17th December 1999:
Commander of ABRI Wiranto and Army Chief of Staff Agum Gumelar emerged out of a meeting with the President to announce some command shuffles. The highlights and analysis included the following:
-Deputy Army Chief of Staff Tyasno Sudarto who began the year trying to establish himself as a rival chief of intelligence to Chief of BAKIN Ari Sudewo ended it being sidelined, replaced by Wiranto ally Djamari Chaniago as Deputy Army Chief of Staff. Djamari is promoted to lieutenant general.
-The President’s son-in-law Ryamizard Ryacudu departs for Jakarta to take up his new post as Assistant of Planning at the ABRI Headquarters.
-Col. Noer Muis, formerly Wiranto’s secretary is promoted to brigadier general and becomes the second in command at the Jakarta Regional Military Command.
-The shuffle is seen as a “cull” of the ABRI Academy Class of 1970. Out of that class, only Deputy Commander of ABRI Johnny Lumintang, ABRI Chief of General Staff Luhut Panjaitan, and Governor of the National Defense Institute Agus Widjojo remains.
-The President strengthens his hold over the Class of 1972. That class now holds 2 of the Regional Military Commands (East Java and Irian Jaya), the command of Kostrad, and both of Kostrad’s infantry divisions.
-The shuffle officially establishes ABRI Chief of Socio-Political Affairs Staff Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as a force in ABRI internal politics. 5 of the Regional Military Commands (Northern Sumatra, Southern Sumatra, West Java, Sulawesi, and Nusa Tenggara) now belong to 5 classmates from his ABRI Academy Class of 1973. Yudhoyono allies from the Class of 1974 and 1975 are also spread out over the top brass.
-Coming on Agum Gumelar’s 54th birthday and with exactly a year left until he reaches retirement age, the shuffle is seen as President Try’s vote of confidence in Agum who did well ensuring that all remained secure in Jakarta during the 1998 MPR Session. That said, the game of speculating of who will succeed him as Army Chief of Staff has already begun.
18th December 1999:
The President received Chairman of NU Abdurrahman Wahid and Secretary of NU Ahmad Bagja at the Bogor Presidential Palace. It was the first time the two met with the President since their respective re-elections at the NU National Congress. Try was accompanied by Edi Sudrajat and Harsudiono Hartas while Wahid was accompanied by his daughter Yenny. The two exchanged pleasantries and talked about the present situation.
After the meeting, Wahid and his small delegation made the journey from the meeting room to his awaiting car. It was here that he asked Ahmad and Yenny to drop back so that Edi and Harsudiono could hold his hands.
“The President’s peace with Tutut, how long do you suppose that it will last?” asked Wahid.
“Well, the President said…” began Edi.
“I just met the fellow and I don’t need a repeat performance. I said what you two gentlemen think?” asked Wahid.
Edi and Harsudiono seemed taken aback by this question. They did not have a chance to respond when Wahid butted in.
“The MPR Session will be in March 2003, the election which will fill that honorable assembly with its delegates will be held what, middle of 2002 at the latest? The candidates for the legislative elections have to be finalized in the final 3 months of 2001…that means it’ll be around middle of 2001 that Try sits down with Tutut to determine who Golkar’s candidates will be in the legislative elections.”
“What are you trying to say,
Gus?” asked Edi.
“There's less than 2 years until he and Tutut have to sit down and work on who will be Golkar's legislative candidates will be. The President’s delusional if he thinks that he can hold this peace. Tutut will use the provincial congresses to strengthen her hold on Golkar and this Operation Lifeboat of his that he just told me about…I don’t know if that will be enough.
A collection of Golkar members who are unambiguously loyal to Try won’t be of any help if Tutut will block their nomination and no matter how many branches whose functionaries Tutut control won’t be any use to her if there are those who are loyal to Try no matter how much she tries to intimidate them.
No, Try and Tutut have too much conflict already. The Provincial Congresses and Operation Lifeboat…this peace between Try and Tutut will not last and it will come to an end sooner rather than later.
The peace will end soon and once it does… there will be no more picking up the pieces.”
A tense silence descended as Wahid’s nose twitched gravely. Edi and Harsudiono waited for what Wahid was about to say.
“Golkar has become too small for both the President and the Chairwoman”, Wahid said “There is only enough room for one of them.”
Harsudiono sighed. This was precisely how he saw things.
“What do you want us to do,
Gus?” asked Edi “How can we best help the President?”
“Right now the only thing that can be done is to let events play themselves out”, said Wahid.
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At last, we're back in Indonesia. Lots of things going on as 1999 comes to an end ITTL. Everything from Tommy Soeharto’s trial, Soeharto’s legacy ITTL, the search for the IMF Managing Director’s position, and so on.
Mbak, which is what Prabowo calls Tutut, means Sister.
Gus, which is what Edi and Harsudiono calls Wahid, refers to Wahid’s nickname of Gus Dur.
Eisuke Sakakibara’s nomination for the IMF Managing Director’s position is as OTL.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Looking-back-at-the-Asian-IMF-concept2
(dont care much for sandi)