205: Changing Calculations
6th November 2002:
Minister of Finance Mar’ie Muhammad and Junior Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto met with President Try Sutrisno today, the latter having returned from the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia the previous day. In their joint press conference, Mar’ie and Bambang said that they and the President discussed budget preparations. The Draft Budget being due to be delivered to the DPR in January 2003. Mar’ie explained the things that need to be factored into the Draft Budget as a result of ASEAN’s agreement to the resumption of AFTA namely a series to policies to better prepare businesses, farmers, and SMEs to face increased competition.
The President held a fast breaking at the Presidential Palace attended state officials, cabinet ministers, and heads of agencies. The fasting month of Ramadan having just begun.
7th November 2002:
At the Presidential Palace, the President, Vice President JB Sumarlin, and Minister of Economics and National Development Planning Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti held a gathering with the nation’s top businessmen which also included Chairman of KADIN Aburizal Bakrie, Chairman of Apindo Sofyan Wanandi, and Chairman of HIPMI Garibaldi Thohir.
In his speech, the President said that the government will not leave Indonesian businesses whether large, medium or small “hanging” and that steps will be taken to prepare them as best as possible for the resumption of AFTA. The President said that the resumption of AFTA will be “a challenge which the nation needs to rise up and meet” with the private sector having to become more competitive and efficient while the government needs to facilitate the private sector so that it can become more competitive and efficient.
The President took questions one of which, perhaps rather mischievously, asked whether Indonesia’s participation in the resumption of AFTA will continue “regardless of what happens in the 2003 MPR General Session”.
“You’d have to ask those who aspire to sit where I’m sitting what they plan on doing” replied the President “I would tell them it’s up to them what they want to do with the resumption of AFTA if things go their way but I would caution them that a lot is at stake if they were to try to change things or even withdraw from AFTA and the first and foremost thing at stake will be our nation’s leadership in the region.”
Speaking at the fast breaking event at the PKPB’s Headquarters, Chairwoman of the PKPB Tutut Soeharto said that she questions the notion that after the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia that Indonesia is now the leader in the region, pointing that Indonesia has “lost” Myanmar. Tutut said that if one cannot be the leader over all, they are not a true leader.
8th November 2002:
In an event at the Presidential Palace, the President granted National Hero status to Prince Paku Alam VIII who, together with Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, declared their support for the newly proclaimed Republic of Indonesia. Accepting the government’s recognition on Paku Alam VIII’s behalf is his son Lieutenant Governor of Yogyakarta Prince Paku Alam IX.
At a press conference at the PNI’s Headquarters, Chairwoman of the PNI Megawati Soekarnoputri said that she will review Indonesia’s participation in the resumption of AFTA saying that Indonesia would no longer be standing on its own two feet economically.
10th November 2002:
The President presided over Heroes’ Day commemorations at the Heroes Cemetery in Kalibata, Jakarta and thought he would have the rest of the day off.
But the day was overshadowed by more news from Montenegro where in response to President of Montenegro Milo Dukanovic’s comments two days prior that he had a mandate to hold an independence referendum, President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic ordered the Yugoslav Army to take control of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. Dukanovic was nowhere to be found as he appears to have gone into hiding and the Yugoslav Army assumes control in a tense Podgorica where they were already shouting “Down with Milosevic!”. In Washington, President of the United States John McCain condemned Milosevic’s actions and insisted that Dukanovic is the rightful winner of the Montenegrin Elections and in Moscow, President of Russia Yevgeny Primakov called for the situation in Montenegro to be solved peacefully but without the intervention of “outside powers”.
11th November 2002:
In a press conference after his meeting with the President, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ginandjar Kartasasmita said that the government expresses its concerns at developments in Montenegro and reiterated the government’s stance that it hopes the situation there will be solved peacefully considering that the United States and Russia has taken sides in the conflict.
There was a question about Indonesia being mentioned in South Korea’s Presidential Debate where Presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang talked about South Korea using Indonesia to keep China busy so that it does not spend so much time backing North Korea. He mentioned “arming Indonesia” saying that he would push for the 2 Type 1300 Submarines due for delivery in 2008 to Indonesia to be delivered earlier if elected president. His opponent Rhee In-je whilst not agreeing to the “arming” part agreed that Indonesia could be use as a “counterbalance.”
“Our nation is now at a stage where we are increasingly becoming part of people’s calculations”, replied Ginandjar.
Ginandjar was asked about events closer to home, namely the Chinese Communist Party’s National Congress which got under way late the previous week. Ginandjar said that the government is keeping an eye on the event but said that it will work with whoever emerges out of the congress as the General Secretary.
12th November 2002:
Landing at Surabaya, East Java in the morning, the Presidential entourage went to the outskirts of the city. Accompanied by Minister of Public Works Rachmat Witoelar and Governor of East Java Haris Sudarno, the President inaugurated the following:
*The Surabaya-Mojokerto Toll Road
*The Gempol-Pasuruan Toll Road
After a tour of the toll roads, the President and his entourage returned to Surabaya where he inspected the bus rapid transit lanes and shelters being constructed as well as the Surabaya Gubeng Train Station to check its readiness ahead of the Eid Holidays before returning to Jakarta.
At the DPR Building today, Attorney General Soedjono C. Atmonegoro introduced the Anti-Terrorism Bill. He calls for quick passage of the bill in the hope that the Jemaah Islamiyah members arrested in August can be prosecuted under the provisions of a passed Anti-Terrorism Bill.
13th November 2002:
The President’s main meeting today was with Minister of Home Affairs Harsudiono Hartas though it was clear that the discussion was more in relation to the latter’s capacity as Chairman of the PKPI’s MPR Delegation.
Harsudiono said that he had put Siswono and Sarwono in charge of writing the Draft GBHN which was to be adopted by the MPR as the GBHN on the President’s re-election. The President approved of this appointment.
The next item was votes in the MPR. Harsudiono said that the downside of the unanimous vote for the PPP’s Matori Abdul Djalil in his election as chairman of the DPR/MPR is that the amount of votes that each side has cannot be gauged. He then reported to the President about the PPP’s Zarkasih Nur admitting that the PPP could not secure unanimous vote for Matori in the chairman DPR/MPR election.
“So in other words, we got lucky that Hartono withdrew his nomination for chairman of the DPR/MPR?” asked the President.
“Yes, Mr. President” replied Harsudiono “But my sense is telling me the PKPB also don’t want to reveal how many votes it controls or doesn’t control in the MPR. They want to save that for next March.”
Harsudiono reported that even with the PKPI, PPP, and ABRI votes being unanimous it will not carry the President to re-election so it would be necessary to look for votes elsewhere.
“The Regional Delegates is one source of votes and so far only East Java’s Regional Delegates are unanimously committed to voting for you and you can thank Dahlan Iskan for that”, said Harsudiono mentioning the Regional Delegate who also happened to be the CEO of Jawa Pos Newspaper “He has been going around the other country trying to gather votes for you from the other Regional Delegates.”
“What about the Group Delegates?” asked the President.
“The overwhelming bulk want to appear impartial and non-committal as to who they will vote for at the MPR Session”, explained Harsudiono “For the moment we’re better off looking for votes among the Regional Delegates.”
14th November 2002:
A long meeting at the Presidential Palace ended with Minister of Defense and Security Wismoyo Arismunandar, Minister of Industry Siswono Yudohusodo, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Tanto Kuswanto, Minister of Transportation Soerjadi Soedirja, State Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Cacuk Sudarijanto, Commander of ABRI Wiranto, and Navy Chief of Staff Djoko Sumaryono.
Siswono began by explaining that the President had signed in their presence a Presidential Instruction on Bolstering Shipbuilding for National Development Purposes. The main provision of this Presidential Instruction, explained Siswono, is the division of the state’s participation in the shipbuilding industry into civilian shipbuilding and naval shipbuilding.
Cacuk spoke next saying that PT. PAL will focus exclusively on naval shipbuilding with PT. Industri Kapal Indonesia focusing on civilian shipbuilding and taking on PT. PAL’s civilian shipbuilding assets. Speaking almost jointly, Soerjadi Soedirja and Tanto said that they will be looking to more civilian ships saying that their two departments are preparing a subsidized shipping scheme so that more goods could be shipped on less lucrative routes and onto more isolated islands to help decrease costs for businesses and prices for consumers in isolated islands.
Speaking for the military side of things, Wismoyo and Wiranto hopes that this “reorganization of responsibilities and roles” will allow for more of the Navy’s equipment needs to be accommodated domestically. Djoko Sumaryono acknowledged the work of PT PAL thus far but made special mention about the contributions of the Maintenance and Repair Facilities of the various naval bases in taking the initiative and producing patrol boats. He said that this reorganization will allow the Maintenance and Repair Facilities on maintenance and repairs as opposed to also partaking in production.
15th November 2002:
The President presided over a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in which he swore in the following:
*Komara Djaja SE., M.Sc., Ph.D as Chairman of the Interdepartemental Team for the Preparation and Implementation of AFTA
*Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Farid Zainuddin as Chief of Lemsaneg
*Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Sridono as Deputy Chief of BAKIN
Watching the ceremony, Chief of BAKIN Ari Sudewo got a lot of attention from the press for what it described as a “reshuffle” in Indonesia’s intelligence community. Ari said that this was a routine rotation of officers in the field of intelligence and that there were no “particular security concerns” on his radar.
Behind closed doors as he briefed both men Ari acknowledged that the reasoning for Sridono’s appointment was the latter’s experience as an intel and then local commander in Aceh in the early 90s and that he wanted Sridono to pay particular attention “increased activity” by both GAM and OPM. While at Lemsaneg, Farid’s duty will be to pick up chatter related to the activities of the two groups.
Later in the day, Megawati Soekarnoputri’s residence at Kebagusan, South Jakarta was lavishly prepared for a special guest who is coming to break his fast. When the guest arrived at the allotted time, Chairman of Muhammadiyah Amien Rais was greeted with cheers by Megawati and her supporters when he emerged out of his car. In between meals, Megawati and Amien made speeches praising each other in particular acknowledging each other’s bravery in standing up to the “previous regime”. To the cameras covering the event after the dinner, Amien said that he and Megawati were just discussing current affairs over dinner.
16th November 2002:
Though the President’s children, childrens-in-law, and grandchildren had gathered at the Presidential Palace to celebrate his 67th birthday and spend the day with him, the President excused himself when his aide-de-camp, Col. Budiman arrived to whisper something in his ear.
When the President arrived at his office, the television was turned on, State Secretary Edi Sudrajat was waiting and Indonesian Ambassador to China Agum Gumelar joined by phone. Agum provided the commentary, how the 16th Chinese Communist Party National Congress had wrapped up the previous day, and that the new Politburo Standing Committee including the general secretary will be formally introduced.
And so it was, with the room applauding them and they themselves applauding, the new Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party entered the room. The President’s eyes were fixed on the man walking at the front of the other Politburo Standing Committee members.
“Tell me about this new person in charge”, said the President.
“The new General Secretary’s name is Luo Gan”, explained Agum’s voice “He’s a protégé of Li Peng who advocated a hardline stance against the Tiananmen Square in 1989 but also acceptable to Jiang Zemin. He’s in charge of the of the security sector and he was the one in charge of the crackdowns on Falun Gong in 1999.”
The President watched as Luo gave his speech, in which he promised among other things that China “will not be afraid to assert its interests near and far”.
“Jiang is not continuing? And not Hu?” asked Edi.
“Jiang has had two full terms as general secretary so they’re clamoring for him to step aside, Mr. President” explained Agum “As for Hu…well, the Party’s calculation has changed and they now need someone more dynamic and who perhaps can be more forceful. No more room for a colourless non-descript leader who’ll just continue existing policies.”
“Someone more suited to the current multipolar environment, in other words?” asked Try.
“Correct, Mr. President”, replied Agum “Of course, it’s not like Jiang was not in favor of multipolarism. It was just the case he was more oriented towards economics. This one…you could probably expect him to throw China’s weight around a little bit.”
Try watched as Luo continued to make his speech when all of a sudden the television was turned off. Try turned around and saw Edi with the remote.
“Let’s not get our priorities mixed up, Mr. President, because I would rather it be you going toe to toe with him than Tutut or Megawati” said Edi “Beat Tutut and Megawati first, then and only then will I allow you to start thinking about that guy.”
---
The Type 1300 Submarines due in 2008 is based on a list of possible TNI procurements listed in https://www.google.co.id/books/edit...nard+c+sebastian&pg=PA246&printsec=frontcover
The ITTL version of Tol Laut coming right up. On the Naval shipbuilding side I am a bit vague about it but as in OTL, the ITTL Fasharkan in the various Naval bases also got involved in constructing patrol boats.
Google Sridono and Aceh in google books and you’ll find he gets mentioned quite a bit. A bit of an obscure officer because I can’t seem to find any pictures of him. https://www.google.com/search?q=sri...CwAzgQ_AUoAXoECAEQCw&biw=1280&bih=577&dpr=1.5
Here’s a bio of Luo Gan https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/focus/2004-02/27/content_420273.htm and here’s his Wiki article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luo_Gan
Going to be a bit busy in OTL so will be some time till my next update.
Don’t forget to vote for me in https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-war-to-contemporary-timeline-poll-ii.539137/
If you feel like you’ve voted for me and you haven’t seen that thread please vote again. Due to a TL not being included in the first poll, another poll had to be set up.
Minister of Finance Mar’ie Muhammad and Junior Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto met with President Try Sutrisno today, the latter having returned from the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia the previous day. In their joint press conference, Mar’ie and Bambang said that they and the President discussed budget preparations. The Draft Budget being due to be delivered to the DPR in January 2003. Mar’ie explained the things that need to be factored into the Draft Budget as a result of ASEAN’s agreement to the resumption of AFTA namely a series to policies to better prepare businesses, farmers, and SMEs to face increased competition.
The President held a fast breaking at the Presidential Palace attended state officials, cabinet ministers, and heads of agencies. The fasting month of Ramadan having just begun.
7th November 2002:
At the Presidential Palace, the President, Vice President JB Sumarlin, and Minister of Economics and National Development Planning Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti held a gathering with the nation’s top businessmen which also included Chairman of KADIN Aburizal Bakrie, Chairman of Apindo Sofyan Wanandi, and Chairman of HIPMI Garibaldi Thohir.
In his speech, the President said that the government will not leave Indonesian businesses whether large, medium or small “hanging” and that steps will be taken to prepare them as best as possible for the resumption of AFTA. The President said that the resumption of AFTA will be “a challenge which the nation needs to rise up and meet” with the private sector having to become more competitive and efficient while the government needs to facilitate the private sector so that it can become more competitive and efficient.
The President took questions one of which, perhaps rather mischievously, asked whether Indonesia’s participation in the resumption of AFTA will continue “regardless of what happens in the 2003 MPR General Session”.
“You’d have to ask those who aspire to sit where I’m sitting what they plan on doing” replied the President “I would tell them it’s up to them what they want to do with the resumption of AFTA if things go their way but I would caution them that a lot is at stake if they were to try to change things or even withdraw from AFTA and the first and foremost thing at stake will be our nation’s leadership in the region.”
Speaking at the fast breaking event at the PKPB’s Headquarters, Chairwoman of the PKPB Tutut Soeharto said that she questions the notion that after the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia that Indonesia is now the leader in the region, pointing that Indonesia has “lost” Myanmar. Tutut said that if one cannot be the leader over all, they are not a true leader.
8th November 2002:
In an event at the Presidential Palace, the President granted National Hero status to Prince Paku Alam VIII who, together with Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, declared their support for the newly proclaimed Republic of Indonesia. Accepting the government’s recognition on Paku Alam VIII’s behalf is his son Lieutenant Governor of Yogyakarta Prince Paku Alam IX.
At a press conference at the PNI’s Headquarters, Chairwoman of the PNI Megawati Soekarnoputri said that she will review Indonesia’s participation in the resumption of AFTA saying that Indonesia would no longer be standing on its own two feet economically.
10th November 2002:
The President presided over Heroes’ Day commemorations at the Heroes Cemetery in Kalibata, Jakarta and thought he would have the rest of the day off.
But the day was overshadowed by more news from Montenegro where in response to President of Montenegro Milo Dukanovic’s comments two days prior that he had a mandate to hold an independence referendum, President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic ordered the Yugoslav Army to take control of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. Dukanovic was nowhere to be found as he appears to have gone into hiding and the Yugoslav Army assumes control in a tense Podgorica where they were already shouting “Down with Milosevic!”. In Washington, President of the United States John McCain condemned Milosevic’s actions and insisted that Dukanovic is the rightful winner of the Montenegrin Elections and in Moscow, President of Russia Yevgeny Primakov called for the situation in Montenegro to be solved peacefully but without the intervention of “outside powers”.
11th November 2002:
In a press conference after his meeting with the President, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ginandjar Kartasasmita said that the government expresses its concerns at developments in Montenegro and reiterated the government’s stance that it hopes the situation there will be solved peacefully considering that the United States and Russia has taken sides in the conflict.
There was a question about Indonesia being mentioned in South Korea’s Presidential Debate where Presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang talked about South Korea using Indonesia to keep China busy so that it does not spend so much time backing North Korea. He mentioned “arming Indonesia” saying that he would push for the 2 Type 1300 Submarines due for delivery in 2008 to Indonesia to be delivered earlier if elected president. His opponent Rhee In-je whilst not agreeing to the “arming” part agreed that Indonesia could be use as a “counterbalance.”
“Our nation is now at a stage where we are increasingly becoming part of people’s calculations”, replied Ginandjar.
Ginandjar was asked about events closer to home, namely the Chinese Communist Party’s National Congress which got under way late the previous week. Ginandjar said that the government is keeping an eye on the event but said that it will work with whoever emerges out of the congress as the General Secretary.
12th November 2002:
Landing at Surabaya, East Java in the morning, the Presidential entourage went to the outskirts of the city. Accompanied by Minister of Public Works Rachmat Witoelar and Governor of East Java Haris Sudarno, the President inaugurated the following:
*The Surabaya-Mojokerto Toll Road
*The Gempol-Pasuruan Toll Road
After a tour of the toll roads, the President and his entourage returned to Surabaya where he inspected the bus rapid transit lanes and shelters being constructed as well as the Surabaya Gubeng Train Station to check its readiness ahead of the Eid Holidays before returning to Jakarta.
At the DPR Building today, Attorney General Soedjono C. Atmonegoro introduced the Anti-Terrorism Bill. He calls for quick passage of the bill in the hope that the Jemaah Islamiyah members arrested in August can be prosecuted under the provisions of a passed Anti-Terrorism Bill.
13th November 2002:
The President’s main meeting today was with Minister of Home Affairs Harsudiono Hartas though it was clear that the discussion was more in relation to the latter’s capacity as Chairman of the PKPI’s MPR Delegation.
Harsudiono said that he had put Siswono and Sarwono in charge of writing the Draft GBHN which was to be adopted by the MPR as the GBHN on the President’s re-election. The President approved of this appointment.
The next item was votes in the MPR. Harsudiono said that the downside of the unanimous vote for the PPP’s Matori Abdul Djalil in his election as chairman of the DPR/MPR is that the amount of votes that each side has cannot be gauged. He then reported to the President about the PPP’s Zarkasih Nur admitting that the PPP could not secure unanimous vote for Matori in the chairman DPR/MPR election.
“So in other words, we got lucky that Hartono withdrew his nomination for chairman of the DPR/MPR?” asked the President.
“Yes, Mr. President” replied Harsudiono “But my sense is telling me the PKPB also don’t want to reveal how many votes it controls or doesn’t control in the MPR. They want to save that for next March.”
Harsudiono reported that even with the PKPI, PPP, and ABRI votes being unanimous it will not carry the President to re-election so it would be necessary to look for votes elsewhere.
“The Regional Delegates is one source of votes and so far only East Java’s Regional Delegates are unanimously committed to voting for you and you can thank Dahlan Iskan for that”, said Harsudiono mentioning the Regional Delegate who also happened to be the CEO of Jawa Pos Newspaper “He has been going around the other country trying to gather votes for you from the other Regional Delegates.”
“What about the Group Delegates?” asked the President.
“The overwhelming bulk want to appear impartial and non-committal as to who they will vote for at the MPR Session”, explained Harsudiono “For the moment we’re better off looking for votes among the Regional Delegates.”
14th November 2002:
A long meeting at the Presidential Palace ended with Minister of Defense and Security Wismoyo Arismunandar, Minister of Industry Siswono Yudohusodo, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Tanto Kuswanto, Minister of Transportation Soerjadi Soedirja, State Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Cacuk Sudarijanto, Commander of ABRI Wiranto, and Navy Chief of Staff Djoko Sumaryono.
Siswono began by explaining that the President had signed in their presence a Presidential Instruction on Bolstering Shipbuilding for National Development Purposes. The main provision of this Presidential Instruction, explained Siswono, is the division of the state’s participation in the shipbuilding industry into civilian shipbuilding and naval shipbuilding.
Cacuk spoke next saying that PT. PAL will focus exclusively on naval shipbuilding with PT. Industri Kapal Indonesia focusing on civilian shipbuilding and taking on PT. PAL’s civilian shipbuilding assets. Speaking almost jointly, Soerjadi Soedirja and Tanto said that they will be looking to more civilian ships saying that their two departments are preparing a subsidized shipping scheme so that more goods could be shipped on less lucrative routes and onto more isolated islands to help decrease costs for businesses and prices for consumers in isolated islands.
Speaking for the military side of things, Wismoyo and Wiranto hopes that this “reorganization of responsibilities and roles” will allow for more of the Navy’s equipment needs to be accommodated domestically. Djoko Sumaryono acknowledged the work of PT PAL thus far but made special mention about the contributions of the Maintenance and Repair Facilities of the various naval bases in taking the initiative and producing patrol boats. He said that this reorganization will allow the Maintenance and Repair Facilities on maintenance and repairs as opposed to also partaking in production.
15th November 2002:
The President presided over a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in which he swore in the following:
*Komara Djaja SE., M.Sc., Ph.D as Chairman of the Interdepartemental Team for the Preparation and Implementation of AFTA
*Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Farid Zainuddin as Chief of Lemsaneg
*Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Sridono as Deputy Chief of BAKIN
Watching the ceremony, Chief of BAKIN Ari Sudewo got a lot of attention from the press for what it described as a “reshuffle” in Indonesia’s intelligence community. Ari said that this was a routine rotation of officers in the field of intelligence and that there were no “particular security concerns” on his radar.
Behind closed doors as he briefed both men Ari acknowledged that the reasoning for Sridono’s appointment was the latter’s experience as an intel and then local commander in Aceh in the early 90s and that he wanted Sridono to pay particular attention “increased activity” by both GAM and OPM. While at Lemsaneg, Farid’s duty will be to pick up chatter related to the activities of the two groups.
Later in the day, Megawati Soekarnoputri’s residence at Kebagusan, South Jakarta was lavishly prepared for a special guest who is coming to break his fast. When the guest arrived at the allotted time, Chairman of Muhammadiyah Amien Rais was greeted with cheers by Megawati and her supporters when he emerged out of his car. In between meals, Megawati and Amien made speeches praising each other in particular acknowledging each other’s bravery in standing up to the “previous regime”. To the cameras covering the event after the dinner, Amien said that he and Megawati were just discussing current affairs over dinner.
16th November 2002:
Though the President’s children, childrens-in-law, and grandchildren had gathered at the Presidential Palace to celebrate his 67th birthday and spend the day with him, the President excused himself when his aide-de-camp, Col. Budiman arrived to whisper something in his ear.
When the President arrived at his office, the television was turned on, State Secretary Edi Sudrajat was waiting and Indonesian Ambassador to China Agum Gumelar joined by phone. Agum provided the commentary, how the 16th Chinese Communist Party National Congress had wrapped up the previous day, and that the new Politburo Standing Committee including the general secretary will be formally introduced.
And so it was, with the room applauding them and they themselves applauding, the new Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party entered the room. The President’s eyes were fixed on the man walking at the front of the other Politburo Standing Committee members.
“Tell me about this new person in charge”, said the President.
“The new General Secretary’s name is Luo Gan”, explained Agum’s voice “He’s a protégé of Li Peng who advocated a hardline stance against the Tiananmen Square in 1989 but also acceptable to Jiang Zemin. He’s in charge of the of the security sector and he was the one in charge of the crackdowns on Falun Gong in 1999.”
The President watched as Luo gave his speech, in which he promised among other things that China “will not be afraid to assert its interests near and far”.
“Jiang is not continuing? And not Hu?” asked Edi.
“Jiang has had two full terms as general secretary so they’re clamoring for him to step aside, Mr. President” explained Agum “As for Hu…well, the Party’s calculation has changed and they now need someone more dynamic and who perhaps can be more forceful. No more room for a colourless non-descript leader who’ll just continue existing policies.”
“Someone more suited to the current multipolar environment, in other words?” asked Try.
“Correct, Mr. President”, replied Agum “Of course, it’s not like Jiang was not in favor of multipolarism. It was just the case he was more oriented towards economics. This one…you could probably expect him to throw China’s weight around a little bit.”
Try watched as Luo continued to make his speech when all of a sudden the television was turned off. Try turned around and saw Edi with the remote.
“Let’s not get our priorities mixed up, Mr. President, because I would rather it be you going toe to toe with him than Tutut or Megawati” said Edi “Beat Tutut and Megawati first, then and only then will I allow you to start thinking about that guy.”
---
The Type 1300 Submarines due in 2008 is based on a list of possible TNI procurements listed in https://www.google.co.id/books/edit...nard+c+sebastian&pg=PA246&printsec=frontcover
The ITTL version of Tol Laut coming right up. On the Naval shipbuilding side I am a bit vague about it but as in OTL, the ITTL Fasharkan in the various Naval bases also got involved in constructing patrol boats.
Google Sridono and Aceh in google books and you’ll find he gets mentioned quite a bit. A bit of an obscure officer because I can’t seem to find any pictures of him. https://www.google.com/search?q=sri...CwAzgQ_AUoAXoECAEQCw&biw=1280&bih=577&dpr=1.5
Here’s a bio of Luo Gan https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/focus/2004-02/27/content_420273.htm and here’s his Wiki article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luo_Gan
Going to be a bit busy in OTL so will be some time till my next update.
Don’t forget to vote for me in https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-war-to-contemporary-timeline-poll-ii.539137/
If you feel like you’ve voted for me and you haven’t seen that thread please vote again. Due to a TL not being included in the first poll, another poll had to be set up.