By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources
There was a trace of real panic in the voice of Bill Clinton yesterday as he urged a skeptical Congress to cough up another $18 billion to shore up the International Monetary Fund and the growing world economies that are faltering. Unfortunately, some of the worst cases of faltering economies are the very same ones that he was quick to send money to less than a year ago. Russia is not the only ones blaming the IMF for bungling the Asian crisis and pushing fragile economies into recession while simultaneously saddling them with huge debts. There also are members of Congress who, having seen up to 50% of the IMF funds sent to corrupt governments finding its way into Swiss bank accounts, are demanding real change at the IMF.
Both IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus and World Bank President James Wolfensohn claim they will "undertake major changes" in their agencies, but their talk is still the same old welfare style program that wrecked nation after nation on African continent - large loans and an economy built on socialism. Wolfensohn supported Clinton's proposal to provide a new IMF credit line that would speed loans to a country before panicked investors bailed out. Then said, "We must go beyond financial stabilization. ... We must focus on social issues," Wolfensohn said. "If we do not have greater equity and social justice, there will be no political stability."
So, what kind of "stability" did we buy a year ago with the IMF when it gave a $23 billion economic rescue package for Suharto's Indonesia, the $17.5 billion to Thailand, $3 billion for the Philippines, $50 billion for Mexico and $55 billion for South Korea? Now Bill Clinton is demanding another $18 billion from the American Taxpayer. Just how strong, now, are the economies of the countries that received well over $100 billion? A year ago we were told that the money being demanded would "solve the problem." There had been "A severe plunge of the Hong Kong stock market" which, we were told, "was the triggering event for the record 554-point stock loss on Wall Street."
The IMF package of $23 billion for Indonesia, which has the world's fourth-largest population, was backed up by $3 billion in U.S. loans. At the time Pat Buchanan said it was an "outrage that American taxpayers are being put on the hook again to bail out these corrupt and incompetent governments." Indonesia's economy is dominated by a small group of Suharto family members and close associates who run state monopolies and other inefficient industries. Remember the "Lippo" group that contributed to the Clinton re-election campaign in 1996?
Where did all that money really come from that poured into the Clinton re-election out of Asia? Kompas, a Jakarta newspaper, may have given us a clue in an article in October 1996, "Who says that Indonesia is poor? The fact is that there are Indonesians who became subsidizers or financers of the president campaigners for the USA, that rich and wealthy superpower. The Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) mentioned last Thursday names like James Riady, Arief and Soraya Wiriadinata as contributors of the campaign for President Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party for the coming general elections in November 1996.
"James Riady who is Vice President Commissioner of the Lippo Group and the couple Arief Wiriadinata who contributed respectively 100,000 US dollar and 427,000 US dollar; probably trivial for the donator but for the Indonesian majority probably unimaginable. John Huang who once led the Lippo Group Branch in the US and also actively raised funds for Clinton's campaign in 1992 was the important fund raiser for the Democratic Party's campaign.
"The mentioned persons are on top of the list. These conglomerates have since 1992 donated a million US dollar to the Democratic National Committee. William Safire, columnist of the New York Times stated last Monday that Arief and Soraya Wiriadinata who now live in Jakarta once occupied an unpretentious house at the outskirts of Virginia. Soraya Adriana is the daughter of Hashim Ning, a business partner of Mochtar Riady. While Arief Wiriadinata who has a green card, works in Indonesia as landscape expert. He is also working at Sea World Indonesia in Ancol which was also built by the Lippo Group."
Kompas noted that these transactions were "Not legal" and that "President Clinton was very astonished with Huang's success. The US federal laws actually forbids political parties or their candidates to accept money from foreign sources, there are however many loopholes in the regulations. Therefore the President Director of Lippo Securities, Charles De Queljoe and his wife who are now living in Jakarta, were able to transfer thousands of dollars to the Democratic Party in Washington. There is an opinion that such donations should be forbidden as it reflects how foreign influence starts to infiltrate in American politics.
"It is reported that the Riady family is indeed extravagant for the Clintons. The donations made that Lippo had close relations with the US Department of Trade and the White House. Huang once also had a function at the US Department of Trade in 1994-95. James knew Clinton already since Little Rock, Arkansas when the Riady family invested in the Worthen Bank. Huang also once worked for Riady as Vice President of Worthen in Asia. Even though the Riady family has no share in Worthen anymore, they maintain the relations with Little Rock. This closeness enables Lippo - the conglomerate with basis in Indonesia which owns some affiliated companies in the US - to grab a number of US companies as partners, to win a number of contracts in Asia worth more than a billion US dollar during the last years.
Close relationships
"Fifteen months ago Mochtar Riady received a breast sculpture of Clinton from old age citizens of Arkansas as appreciation. Melinda Yee, special assistant of the Minister of Trade Ron Brown is mentioned to have "very close relationships" with James Riady. She once arranged a private lunch between two high officials of the Department of Trade, Jeffrey Garten and David Rothkopf with a number of Indonesian entrepreneurs at James Riady's home during Clinton's visit to Jakarta.
"During his stay in Jakarta, a meeting was also arranged between Clinton, James and his father, Mochtar Riady at a reception while Bruce Lindsey, the advisor from the White House also discussed with Riady the meeting of Clinton with a number of entrepreneurs of Arkansas, close to Lippo."
What, do you suppose, all this chatty information in a Jakarta newspaper has to do with the current state of the Indonesian economy? Could there be a connection, do you suppose, in the meltdown of the Indonesian and other Asian economies and in the policies of Bill Clinton? Is that why we are hearing a touch of panic in Clinton's voice as he tries to convince us that, this time, he is telling the truth and a little more of our tax dollars will actually help all those poor children that were living in Indonesia when its ruling elite were sending millions for his re-election?
Kompas went on to note, "Another Lippo connection to Clinton is an old friend of Riady, Paul Berry who once shared one room with Riady. Either Huang or Berry decline that they work on behalf of Riady or Lippo. In 1994 the Cinton government succeeded to fight for laws which loosened the regulations for foreign banks - like the Lippo Bank - in Los Angeles.
"As compensation Lippo last year helped to release one exponent of the Whitewater scandal, former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, from his involvement with said scandal by employing him with an unclear function for six months, between his dishonorable retirement from the US Department of Justice and his accusation of swindle.
"During the investigation however Hubbell declined to say what he did for Lippo and what his salary was. The connection of Whitewater and Lippo was not much touched by the mass media so that we never know for sure what had happened."
Two years have gone by and today, we find, Bill Clinton isn't the only one being investigated. As the high flying finance of Suharto and the Riady and Lippo group began unraveling a year ago Suharto was forced from the office of President of Indonesia in May of this year by angry demonstrators. These were the same people who had re-elected him a few months before.
It undoubtedly gives Clinton the willies to realize how quickly people can go from being fed, sheltered and tolerant to being hungry, homeless and intolerant when they lose their jobs, as he recalls the much repeated words, "I'll support Clinton, as long as the economy is good and I have a job." Very shortly 23,000 workers at the Boeing plant in Washington state won't have jobs - and that's just the beginning.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com