THE negotiation was short. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) seemed to have been subdued. Only in four days, the economic team under the new leader, Coordinating Minister Rizal Ramli, was successful in "forcing" the IMF to revise the letter of intent—an agreement between the government and the multilateral institution.

That is, according to Rizal Ramli. In fact, he said that he didn’tt merely change the agreement, but