A CABINET OF ONE -- INDONESIA'S FIRST LADY EXPANDS

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 002924

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, INR/EAP
NSC FOR EPHU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/17/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KISL PINR ID
SUBJECT: A CABINET OF ONE -- INDONESIA'S FIRST LADY EXPANDS
HER INFLUENCE

REF: A. JAKARTA 1059

B. JAKARTA 271

C. 06 JAKARTA 13526

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Classified By: Pol/C Joseph Legend Novak, reasons 1.4(b,d).


1. (S) SUMMARY: According to contacts, Indonesia's First
Lady has expanded her influence within the Palace and emerged
as the President's undisputed top advisor. Kristiani
Herawati's ascendance has apparently come at the expense of
other key advisors. The First Lady has allegedly leveraged
her access to the President to help her friends and disparage
her foes, including Vice President Kalla. While unconfirmed
rumors of the First Lady's business relationships continue to
float around Jakarta, there is little evidence to support
accusations that she has enriched herself at the public
trough. There is also no evidence that the First Lady has
exerted her influence on foreign policy issues. END SUMMARY.

A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH


2. (S) Complaints about the First Lady's role in Palace
affairs emerged almost as soon as President Yudhoyono assumed
office in 2004. According to a host of Mission contacts, Ibu
Ani--as she is known in Indonesia--quickly demonstrated a
tendency to weigh in on policy, politics, and personnel
matters. The President's advisors privately grumbled about
her unseen influence in the decision-making process, but
there was at least a sense in the early days of the
administration that her voice was only one of the many
President Yudhoyono listened to during his lengthy
deliberations on matters of state.


3. (S) Over the course of the last year or so, contacts have
reported that the balance of power within the Palace has
shifted palpably in Ibu Ani's direction. As Presidential
Advisor T.B. Silalahi told poloff in Ref B, members of the
President's staff increasingly feel marginalized and
powerless to provide counsel to the President. Silalahi, for
example, told poloff that his cousin, Presidential Cabinet
Secretary Sudi Silalahi, almost resigned in January out of

SIPDIS
frustration with the new Palace dynamic.


4. (S) According to Dadan Irawan, a high-level Golkar
official (Golkar is the largest party in Indonesia),Ibu Ani
has moved to restrict access to the President -- even among
members of the Presidential Staff and the newly formed
Presidential Advisory Board (Ref A). Dadan told poloff that
by strengthening her gate-keeping role, the First Lady was
able to expose the President to views and policy perspectives
of her own choosing. According to Yahya Asagaf, a political
appointee at the State Intelligence Agency (BIN),it was also
becoming more obvious that the First Lady's opinion was "the
only one that matters."

A DISTINCT ECHO?


5. (S) According to family friend Ridwan Soeriyadi, the First
Lady's influence could partially be explained as a by-product
of the President's own cautiousness and his understandable
skepticism of his advisors' motives. Ridwan told poloff that
Ibu Ani was the only person the President could truly trust
on every issue, and as the President moved into the second
half of his term, he was increasingly moving in lock-step
with his wife. Ridwan likened Yudhoyono's relationship with
Ibu Ani to former president Suharto's relationship with his
wife, and believed that on some level Yudhoyono possibly
viewed Suharto's relationship as a kind of model for his own
presidency (SBY worked closely with the former president
during his military career).

HELPING FRIENDS AND PUNISHING FOES


6. (S) Dadan Irawan told poloff that Coordinating Minister
for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie was perhaps the most
obvious beneficiary of the First Lady's Palace role.
According to Dadan, after the President demoted Bakrie from
his perch atop the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy in

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late 2005, Bakrie immediately launched a charm offensive on
the First Lady to try and work his way back into the
President's good graces. Dadan reported that over the first
half of 2006, Bakrie assiduously ingratiated himself with the
First Lady and her family; Bakrie's strategic courtship
apparently worked in spades. Not only did Bakrie somehow
manage to weather the East Java mud-flow debacle initiated by
his Lapindo Bras Corporation, but he has also steadily
increased his profile within the administration


7. (S) If Bakrie's approach represents the model blueprint
for managing relations with the First Lady, Vice President
Kalla's frosty association with Ibu Ani undoubtedly sits at
the other end of the spectrum. By all accounts, the First
Lady actively loathes the Vice President and has launched a
not-so-secret campaign to have him replaced at the bottom of
the 2009 ticket. The Vice President has apparently evinced
little interest in improving his relationship with her. This
decision may ultimately come at a cost for Kalla, however, as
Mission contacts uniformly agree the First Lady will have a
major say in whether or not the SBY-Kalla pairing stays
together in 2009 (see septel).

ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION


8. (S) As Ibu Ani's influence has expanded, so too has the
list of her enemies both inside and outside the Palace.
Accusations of corruption have dogged her since Yudhoyono
first assumed office, and Ibu Ani's enemies have increasingly
worked to spread rumors about her in the intervening years.
Most of the rumors are short on specifics, however, and
generally seem to gain currency primarily because of the
First Family's modest financial means. (Note: The President
spent the bulk of his career in the military, while the First
Lady herself comes from a well-known military family.
Neither of their families is considered to be very wealthy.)
Yudhoyono's supporters and adversaries both recognize this
core financial vulnerability and rumors that Ibu Ani may be
exploiting the presidency to address this issue seem to gain
traction as a result. Nevertheless, at this point there is
no evidence to substantiate any of the rumors involving the
First Lady.

NO INTEREST IN FOREIGN POLICY


9. (S) There is no indication that the First Lady has an
abiding interest in foreign policy or holds any strong views
toward the United States; her influence would seem to reside
primarily in the domestic political sphere. While she
accompanies her husband on foreign trips, she rarely travels
internationally on her own and apparently has little interest
in serving as a GOI envoy on any international issues.
Likewise, we have never heard of foreign diplomats trying to
meet with her to influence issues and--though she is
accessible at receptions--she tends to steer clear of
substantive exchanges with foreigners.



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