INDONESIA: PRESIDENT SUHARTO SWEARS IN NEW CABINET скачать в хорошем качестве

INDONESIA: PRESIDENT SUHARTO SWEARS IN NEW CABINET

(16 Mar 1998) English/Nat Indonesian President Suharto swore in a new cabinet on Monday infused with loyalists including old friends, business partners and his eldest daughter. The 36 new ministers have a mammoth task ahead of them. They must tackle Indonesia's worst economic crisis in three decades. But President Suharto, who was re-elected last week by an assembly packed with handpicked supporters, and who is under foreign pressure to reform the economy, is already the subject of heavy criticism for his hastily compiled cabinet. As Indonesia grapples with its worst economic crisis in more than thirty years, the country's President Suharto swore in a new cabinet on Monday. Most ministers are Suharto loyalists and include old friends and business partners of the president as well as his eldest daughter. In a display of pomp and ceremony, the 36 ministers intoned the oath of office, mindful that they must tackle Indonesia's worst economic crisis in three decades. However, many cabinet members are Suharto allies whom critics say are unlikely to push hard on reform - and the new cabinet is already under criticism. The International Monetary Fund has suspended aid to the financially battered nation because of fears that Suharto is backsliding on austerity measures he promised to implement. I-M-F officials had indicated they were waiting for Suharto to form a new cabinet before resuming loan talks with Indonesia, which is supposed to dump monopolies and other perks that have enriched the president, his family and associates. So far, the I-M-F has handed over six percent of a 43 (b) billion U-S dollar rescue package. After swearing in the cabinet, Suharto got back to work briefing German officials as well as Japan and the U-S who contributed to the rescue package. But appointments like that of Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana (known as Tut Tut) to the cabinet may not necessarily instil confidence in some economic watchers. Tut Tut is Suharto's eldest daughter to the cabinet and is the new social affairs minister, and demonstrates how much influence the president's family has on government policy. As a leader of the ruling Golkar party, she is the most politically active of Suharto's six millionaire children, all of whom have built vast business empires under his patronage. SOUNDBITE: (English) "What I'm really worried is that they are going into protecting certain interests which are the first family and then make the Indonesian economy isolated from the international economy, the global economy which I think will deteriorate, degrade the economic achievement that we have been achieving in the last 30 years." SUPER CAPTION: Umar Juono, economist Also sworn into Suharto's cabinet was the 76-year-old president's golfing buddy and business advisor, Bob Hasan. He's taken the post of trade minister. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I would think that the cabinet is like a crony cabinet because at the time of the crisis we should be able to emphasise the wider interests where domestically the government really needs legitimacy, political legitimacy for a broad based political support." SUPER CAPTION: Umar Juono, economist Two-thirds of the cabinet ministers are new faces, while the rest were reappointed or shifted to other ministries. Indonesia is grappling with price increases and unemployment, as well as scattered calls, mostly from university students, for democratic reform and Suharto's ousting. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...