Word: taufik
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...newsweekly Tempo?to appoint one of his own closest aides to the critical post of Cabinet Secretary, the official who acts as the chief intermediary between the President and her Cabinet and thus wields tremendous influence over policy decisions. "She knows that if she gives in on this that Taufik will control everything," says a source close to Megawati. Even Taufik loyalists express concern. "He uses his influence; he wants to make sure Megawati is effective as the President," says Rizal Mallarangeng, an academic who is a close friend of Taufik's. "But whether it's for good...
...Politicking is second nature to Taufik, whom associates and adversaries alike characterize as a shrewd operator and a natural networker. "He's a grassroots politician in the populist tradition," says Rizal Ramli, a minister in the administration of Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati's predecessor. Those characteristics explain much of Taufik's current behavior, friends say. "He knows the perils and dangers of being political and the President's spouse, and yet he has embraced his position as a power broker," says Jeffrey Winters, an American academic and author of numerous books on Indonesia who is also personally close to both...
...Taufik admits in an 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...
...underperformance of the conglomerate as a whole. When Bumi Resources needed $150 million to buy Indonesia's second largest private coal company, it received it from the state-run workers pension fund?Jamsostek?and the country's largest bank, Bank Mandiri. A businessman intimate with the deal says Taufik supported Bumi's funding requests. Not so, says a spokesperson for the Bakrie Group of companies, and when asked about the transaction, Taufik told TIME: "I don't have any business with (the bank and pension fund...
...Part of Taufik's problems stem from the perception of the company he keeps. The President's husband recently met Tomy Winata, one of the country's wealthiest ethnic-Chinese businessmen and a man known for his close ties to the gambling underworld. Taufik and some family members (but not Megawati) were vacationing on an island owned by Winata. Taufik also famously conducted a prolonged shopping spree in New York City with Jacob Nursalim, the nephew of Syamsul Nursalim, one of Indonesia's largest debtors. Indeed, as TIME wrapped up an interview with Taufik at his home on a recent...