NELSON Mandela interceded on behalf of Dr Allan Boesak, his Foundation for Peace and Justice and other non-government organisations which had been ripped off in the Indonesia bank loan bungle, after advice that a “quiet” diplomatic approach was most likely to get them back their money.
The NGOs and their British business associate Paul Main, who had advanced the bulk of the millions of rands that went missing — in a failed attempt to secure the US$40- million loan — contemplated legal action against PT Kadomas, the Indonesian company that was to have made the loan, and Bank Putera Sukapura, which had given allegedly false assurances of PT Kadomas’ creditworthiness, when the deal collapsed in the second half of 1992.
But soon their lawyers in Indonesia were being “harassed” by security personnel. Their inquiries — and inquiries by Ismail Coovadia, then ANC representative in Indonesia — showed that Bank Putera Sukapura was “close” to Indonesia’s President Suharto. Their advice was that the public legal route would have little chance of success.
A daughter of Suharto, other members of his family, and close associates were found to have been shareholders or directors of the bank.
Suharto’s regime stands internationally condemned for human rights abuses in East Timor, the former Portuguese colony it occupies, but the regime has had a reasonably good relationship with the ANC by virtue of Indonesia’s membership of the Non-Aligned Movement and its historical support for sanctions against apartheid South Africa.
Mandela, who encountered criticism in 1991 for a visit to Indonesia where he was accorded VIP treatment by Suharto, agreed in the second half of 1993 to write to Suharto pleading Boesak’s case — after initial reluctance and only after Boesak had pleaded with Thabo Mbeki, then head of the ANC foreign affairs department, to intervene.
It is not clear why ANC top structures were initially reluctant to intervene or what later swayed them, but a factor which may have featured was that the loan transaction, had it come off, would have contravened the financial sanctions the ANC, including its then Western Cape leader Boesak, were still publicly advocating.
Mandela’s letter, diplomatic approaches by Mbeki, and Boesak’s own contact with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas — they served together on a United Nations committee — resulted in a meeting between Boesak and Suharto in late 1993.
In spite of assurances made to Boesak and the NGOs, no money has yet been recovered from the Indonesians.