The Fifth Season (9 page)

Knowledge of his promiscuous behavior had set the Jakarta circles chattering. Even amongst her closest friends there were few who enjoyed the courage to expose Praboyo's extra marital relationships to Tuti. This task willingly fell to her brother Timmy whom, she recalled angrily, actually relished in relaying some anecdote that was circulating, concerning her husband's most recent conquests. Tuti had endeavored to discover the whereabouts of her husband's current attention, but had been unsuccessful. This had only added to her frustration and anger, and the temptation to reveal Praboyo's transgressions to the President grew daily. But Tuti knew that she would never inform her father as to her husband's indiscretions, for he would be saddened by her inability to keep her man in line.

Instead, Tuti decided to continue with her search for Praboyo's latest beau, and deal with her in a manner which would at least discourage others from offering their favors too freely to Major General Praboyo.

Tuti wondered what would happen to their considerable joint wealth if they were to separate, even divorce. These thoughts brought another frown and immediately she attempted to recall which of the larger enterprises they controlled were majority owned by her husband. Annoyed that Praboyo enjoyed considerably more wealth than she thought should be his entitlement, Tuti decided to speak to her eldest brother concerning her demise. Perhaps he could help force her husband to toe the line.

Tuti preferred not to discuss her problems with Nuri, her older sister.

As first born, she had enjoyed a special relationship with their parents and, once their mother had passed away, this sister had assumed many of their mother's duties, including that of confidante to their father. Tuti acknowledged privately that she was jealous of their relationship, but even more, she had become deeply envious of her sister's new role as chairwoman over the many foundations and charity organizations which were responsible for generating, and hiding, so much of her family's wealth.

Tuti understood the extent of the enormous fortunes the Suhapto's had amassed, and never once considered the possibility that her brothers and sisters, the family gatherers, would ever cease searching for new opportunities to increase their wealth. The family firmly believed that the
Bapak
, their father, was deeply loved and respected by all the Indonesian people and accepted that his role was more that of king than President, and was therefore entitled to the riches and spoils which accompanied such power.

It seemed obvious to the Suhaptos and their close associates, that the First Family's involvement in commerce should be applauded, as their efforts had greatly benefited the country.

They had all been pleased when their father had publicly acknowledged that without his children's involvement in many of the major ventures undertaken throughout the nation then, in all probability, the foreign investors would not have committed their substantial capital to developing the country. Even the world press had commended the Suhapto Government's efforts in raising living standards, literacy, and longevity throughout the archipelago. That many of the infrastructure projects now belonged to the family's extensive financial empire was, in their opinion, a clear demonstration that without their continuing involvement in the country's industrial growth, the nation would flounder.

Nepotism, cronyism, and other distasteful utterances were not part of their vocabularies; neither did these words ever appear in the Indonesian Press.

With this thought, Tuti reached down and retrieved a copy of
Femina
Magazine and flipped through the pages, deciding that she would occupy the rest of her day with a change of wardrobe. She knew that most of the famous European houses' fashions were available in Jakarta within days of their first being displayed along Paris catwalks, and decided that she would have her staff phone ahead to alert the managers that she would visit their boutiques. Tuti thought she might also take time to inspect the latest jewelry shipments, before returning home for tea.

Hopeful that an afternoon of extravagance might assist to distract her mind from the problems at hand, Tuti called her secretary to make the necessary arrangements, then went out on her shopping spree, spending tens of thousands of dollars throughout the afternoon at Jakarta's largest, and most modern mall, unaware that the warm reception she received from the management was not only in response to her substantial purchases. For the extent of the President's family holdings were so great, even Tuti had no idea that the complex she had visited also belonged to one of the Suhapto family subsidiary enterprises, and that the money she had spent would simply be recycled, eventually reappearing in the collective Suhapto coffers.

* * * *

The Indonesian Central Bank's Governor looked at the hourly report nervously, wondering how events in Malaysia would compound the regional monetary concerns since Thailand and Korea's currencies had all but collapsed. The Malay Ringgit's demise would most certainly affect the Rupiah, and Indonesia's current negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank representatives.

The Governor's concerns were real. The Republic's staggering private sector debt which had accumulated just over the past decade was choking the banking system and threatened to cause a further downgrading by most international financial institutions.
Who in the hell was this international speculator Soros anyway?
he worried.

Governor Sutedjo agonized over informing the Minister whom, he knew would simply tell him to continue with business as usual, ignoring the cold reality that the Indonesian economy had begun to show dangerous signs of stalling, due to the excessive private sector and government debt held in foreign currencies. He estimated this figure to now exceed one hundred billion dollars. The enormity of the problem threatened a wave of panic; several of the smaller banks had failed during preceding weeks directing unwanted attention towards questionable practices exercised by the banking fraternity.

The Governor was most concerned as to how the international community would react when they realized that the aggregate debts represented an impossible sum to repay. The Indonesian economy outwardly appeared healthy, with foreign investment once again exceeding expectations. The resources sector had continued to perform well, although he knew that the government would have been in a stronger position had oil prices been maintained at the higher levels.
Why had the money speculators
moved on the Asian currencies?

As if the flow-on effects from what had already commenced in Bangkok and Seoul were not enough,
now
the country had to contend with one of the poorest rice harvests on record. The Governor muttered to himself as he recalled the latest statistical reports forecasting extreme shortages across the country. The prognosis was that the island of Java would be worst affected by the drought.
Sialan! Damn!
he cursed silently
.
Until six months ago he had never heard of this calamitous climatic event the world knew as El Nino.

The New Year had presented Sutedjo with the most formidable task.

Within days the country's Moslem community would commence their fast which, he feared, would accelerate the inevitable. Sutedjo wondered what would happen in weeks to come when the country's one million public servants, and half a million members of the armed forces discovered that they would not receive the mandatory additional month's salary, nor the traditional bonuses and gifts once their month-long fast had been broken. The Governor shuddered. He was tempted to agree with the Minister that they could temporarily resolve the problem by printing more money, but knew that this would, undoubtedly, further exacerbate their problem downstream. He also believed that such action would deter both the IMF and the World Bank from initiating steps to assist propping up the failing Rupiah, restarting Indonesia's comatose economy.

Governor Sutedjo looked out through the pollution-stained windows and down at the seemingly endless lanes of cars, buses, trucks and motorbikes moving in miniature along the city's main thoroughfares and admitted that fiscal and monetary policies had not been overly clever under the New Order's leadership.

Not that the Central Bank could be considered blameless, he admitted. When the President's son had demanded a bridging loan in excess of two hundred million dollars to assist in recovering his situation with his disastrous foray into the traditional clove market, the former Governor had refused. Sutedjo had been appointed successor and immediately went about arranging the loan. Now, he realized, such loans contributed towards most of the country's banking dilemma.

Sutedjo knew that he could no longer procrastinate, and called his secretary to invite the IMF Jakarta-based representative for further discussions. The International Monetary Fund's current offer would not be sufficient to prevent further deterioration in the local currency, but perhaps an immediate injection from the World Bank might just provide sufficient funds for the Government to overcome its immediate dilemma regarding the traditional payments due to members of the military and public service. Encouraged by this possibility, Governor Sutedjo leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and commenced formulating some ideas he would suggest to the World Bank officers later in the week, while considering how he could personally benefit from the current situation.

The President leaned forward and placed both hands dominantly on the historic table as he glared at his advisers.
When would they ever get it
right?

‘George Bush had the perfect opportunity Mr. President, and he blew it.' The speaker turned to others in the room knowing that the general consensus supported his position. ‘We had Saddam by the balls, but let him get away. We should have gone all the way and destroyed anything that even resembled a factory or warehouse while we still had world opinion on our side.' The Secretary of State then sighed heavily, more out of frustration than tiredness, and shook his head.

‘Sanctions?' the President asked, looking at no one in particular.

‘The Press believes that we should reconsider some aspects of these, Mr.

President,' It was Dean J. Scott, the President's chief of staff who offered this opinion. Although the Middle East, with its complicated political, ethnic and religious rivalries had continued to dominate American foreign policy for more than half a century, it was the President's popularity which had prompted Scott to suggest that, by removing sanctions which directly affected the flow of medical and other humanitarian supplies, the Press would look more favorably on the current Administration. The President's sexual indiscretions continued to consume an excessive amount of Oval Office time and he was the one responsible for taking most of the heat out of the media.

‘If anything, we should squeeze him even more,' Admiral Colin Brown, insisted. The Joint Chiefs were impatient for another action against Saddam to field test new technology under actual combat conditions.

‘These sanctions are hurting him seriously, but not enough to bring him down.' The Defense Secretary took control of the conversation. He too believed that President Bush had erred by not finishing what he had started. ‘His organized mass rallies are starting to work for him, with human rights activists screaming bloody murder about the interrupted flow of medical supplies. If we don't act soon, public opinion might prevent us taking any pre-emptive action against Baghdad this time.'

‘How much time do we have?' The President asked. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembered having been told but, with the incredible pressure he had been under lately he just could not recall the information.

He resisted thinking about the Press, and how they continued to paint him as a sexual predator.

‘Six, perhaps even eight months Mr. President,' the Defense Intelligence Director stated. ‘We must assume that he has successfully hidden some of the completed stages within the palace grounds. Also, we still have not been able to verify delivery of the current Chinese shipments.' Those present were all painfully aware of China's role in the destabilization of the entire region running from its own borders, across Pakistan, Afghanistan and into the powerful oil economies of Iran and Iraq.

This was of major concern to all her neighbors. China's incredible industrial growth over the preceding ten years had seen the country become a net importer of oil, most of which originated from Iran and Iraq. As an additional incentive to those two hostile nations, China provided highly sensitive weapons technology via the Great Wall industries group, and successfully encouraged North Korea to participate in these Middle East missile programs. This, to the dismay of many intelligence observers, included the
Shahab-5
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles which, with their five thousand kilometer range, would give Saddam strike capability throughout all of the Middle East and Europe, once the project was realized.

‘Do we have the numbers now to proceed?' The President looked directly at the American Ambassador to the United Nations who, having already commenced lobbying those representatives whose countries were ambivalent to the West's concerns, seemed quite unhappy with the question.

‘If China abstains without veto in the Security Council, we should have no difficulty there. What concerns me most is the amount of growing resistance to another strike against Iraq within the General Assembly.

Support has dwindled considerably, and with the currency meltdowns occurring in Asia, the United States does not exactly head the popularity lists. There is considerable anti-American sentiment running through Asia, as we are perceived to be responsible for the currency meltdowns in Thailand and Korea.' He then paused, spread his open hands and shrugged. ‘If we push for a vote before the Asian situation deteriorates further, my guess is that we will have the support needed.'