Word: suharto
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...knew when he accompanied President Megawati Sukarnoputri's controversial husband to the company's mine site last September. Freeport officials were aware that Taufik had been asking about a chunk of shares in the company's Indonesian operations previously held by Mohamad ("Bob") Hasan, a confidant of former President Suharto. Indeed, the issue of the shares came up soon after the Freeport executive boarded the presidential C-130 aircraft carrying Taufik and a 40-member entourage. With Hasan serving a lengthy jail sentence for corruption, the executive was told, the 4.7% stake in PT Freeport Indonesia was in limbo...
...From the day she took office, President Megawati has continually stressed the importance of clean government and her determination to root out corruption. That's hardly surprising considering the billions of dollars that disappeared in behind-the-scenes influence peddling and cronyism during Suharto's time. There's no evidence that Taufik has done anything illegal. But his casual assumption of presidential prerogatives, his unabashed wheeling and dealing and the memory of Suharto-style backroom deals that clings to those activities have set alarm bells ringing in Jakarta. Speculation on the actions and intentions of the President's husband reminds...
...interview with TIME to "sometimes helping as a mediator," but he flatly denies making any money from the deals he arranges. He does acknowledge, however, that it's hard for Indonesians to believe that no commissions are involved, not least because they have witnessed a history of spousal abuse: Suharto's late wife, Tien, was widely known as Madame Tien Percent. "Everyone was afraid of her when she was at home," says Taufik, "let alone when she went out." But while Suharto's family members squeezed the government for contracts and concessions, Taufik is not interested in taking on projects...
...jail term imposed for his pro-Sukarno political activism as a student. Taufik worked his way up from selling kerosene door-to-door to owning nine gas stations that, he says, remain his chief source of income, netting him about $100,000 a month. Under transparency laws passed after Suharto's ouster, the couple made an obligatory declaration of their assets, which totaled some $6 million...
...they friends of yours? You know Nursalim's nephew, Jacob, well. Taufik: I don't know Marimutu, only his secretary. Jacob is an old friend of mine. I know there's a risk and that people will say things, but I don't want to go back to the Suharto era of stigmas when they say you can't hang out with this person or that person. Still, I hope (Jacob's) not playing dirty...