Prijadi Praptosuhardjo:"It's fresh air for me now"
A smiling Prijadi Praptosuhardjo greeted TEMPO at his South Jakarta home last Thursday. Two days after his dismissal as minister of finance, the 61-year-old from Klaten in Central Java wasn't showing the scars of political battle. This was in sharp contrast to when the announcement was made. The former director of corporate credit at Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) was holding a meeting with the House of Representatives' (DPR) Budget Committee. The discussion on budget revisions—which was nearing completion—had to be suspended immediately because, "I can no longer concentrate on this issue," he told the participants with an air of dejection.
June 12, 2001
He hadn't thought he'd be discharged that day. When President Abdurrahman Wahid informed him of his dismissal a day earlier, Prijadi had asked to finish what he was working on: bringing to a conclusion the discussions on the budget revisions.
Perhaps, though, it was Prijadi's stance on those very revisions that was his undoing. His desire to hastily increase fuel prices, for example, was considered "good for the economy, but politic
...