9 - Cement Build-up and Bailout

Summary

During his thirty-two-year regime, Suharto seldom spoke publicly about Liem. This is not surprising, as the strongman presumably felt no need to defend his relationship with his main cukong, who was supposed to be there to give financial support but not talked about. Also, the Indonesian media never had the chance to directly ask about Liem, as Suharto hardly ever gave press conferences. The few interviews he granted always required the media to submit questions in advance, and if the keepers of Suharto's door didn't like a question, the media requesting the interview was informed that the president's busy schedule made one impossible. Still, there was no way to shut people up completely, and the Suharto-Liem link continued to be a matter of public discourse, with some bolder media commenting on it. Suharto broke his silence one day in 1995, when he surprisingly responded to persisting public discussions about the greatly slowed pace of economic reform by launching an unexpected, robust defence of his ties with Liem.

“CARRYING OUT AN ASSIGNMENT”

One of the major topics in Suharto's unscripted remarks was cement. This was surprising, too, as the subject getting heavy attention at that time was Bulog's continuing monopolies, in particular over wheat imports, and Bogasari's domination of flour-milling; in the preceding months, Salim's position in flour had come under renewed public criticism. Little if any attention was paid then to cement, where there was no monopoly. A decade earlier, though, Suharto had bailed out Liem when his cement business was overextended, and now that he had decided to speak on his pal's behalf, cement was the key subject, along with flour. Suharto told 200 small- and medium-sized pribumi executives at his Tapos ranch that where critics saw the cukong as a big crony in collusion with the President, he saw a capable businessman who dutifully carried out whatever “national service” he was instructed to do. People had the wrong notions about how Salim became big in cement, Suharto declared to the assembled audience, jabbing the air with a finger to emphasize his point. “Everything has been mistaken, as if there was collusion between me and Liem. No.