‘When?’
Baird was swept with relief. ‘Within the next months, Pak.’
‘You will keep my share in your name,’ Subroto ordered, ‘I don’t want any dealings with Kremenchug directly. Is that clear?’
That his sponsor had failed to thank him for the generous gift was of no consequence to Baird. Subroto could now be counted upon to support the Canadian venture, whenever obstacles appeared, as Baird knew they inevitably would. The mining industry had become an investment nightmare for the unsuspecting investor, the bureaucratic quagmire deliberately created by officialdom, a means for extracting payments from foreign participants.
‘I’ll make the necessary arrangements, Pak,’ Baird promised.
Subroto’s face turned friendly. ‘Speaking of arrangements, Eric, how are things progressing between you and my niece?’
Baird visibly trembled at the mention of Pipi Suhartono, unable to control his discomfort as he looked towards the closed door for escape.
‘I have been very busy with Kremenchug,’ he explained.
‘You shouldn’t neglect her,’ Subroto’s face suddenly became serious. ‘Pipi is very fond of you, Eric, and you are fortunate to have a woman of her quality and education as a companion.’
Baird felt his blood begin to freeze. Several months had transpired since Pipi had been introduced to him and, since that first meeting, Subroto had insisted that Baird accompany his niece to a number of formal functions, the most recent, a family wedding. Subroto’s intentions were frighteningly clear to Baird, his dilemma, how to avoid involvement with Pipi without offending his sponsor. At Subroto’s insistence, he had escorted Pipi to the movies once, and attended an outing to the Bogor gardens with members of her immediate family. Stunned when he discovered that it was assumed they were to become engaged, Baird had seriously considered leaving the country altogether, and had remained only because of Mardidi’s ineligibility to obtain a visa for Australia. ‘Pak ‘Broto,’ Baird’s hands were clasped in anxiety, ‘I have the greatest respect for Pipi, but I am not ready for another commitment just yet.’
Subroto’s eyes narrowed considerably. ‘Are you still involved with that banci?’
Baird’s stomach squeezed with the word. ‘Mardidi is not a banci, Pak.’
‘I am very disappointed, Eric,’ Subroto’s voice dropped so staff eavesdropping could not hear. ‘I thought I’d made it quite clear how I felt about that relationship?’
Bereft of an answer, Baird’s shoulders slumped, and he looked down at his feet, submissively.
‘He is just my very good friend, Pak,’ he said, knowing that he was on dangerous ground.
‘Is he the reason you don’t like Pipi?’ Subroto challenged.
‘No!’ Baird worried where this was leading. ‘I really do have deep feelings for Pipi, Pak, but I don’t want to take on any additional responsibilities until I know that I can handle these, financially.’ A wave of nausea threatened, and again Baird looked to the door for escape.
Subroto accepted the compromise. ‘Then don’t leave it too long, Eric,’ he admonished, ‘ladies like Pipi don’t grow on trees!’
‘I know, Pak, I know.’ Baird then mumbled something as he rubbed his stomach and grimaced, apologizing that he was not feeling well, and fled the office before Subroto could further advance their conversation.
****
Subroto squeezed into the Mercedes’ rear seat and instructed the driver to take him home. Fine, German engineering groaned underneath as the vehicle made its way through the congested city, heading south through Kebayoran Baru, through Kemang, and onwards to Cilandak. In pensive mood, the retired air force General leaned back into the deeply indented, leather seat and closed his eyes, pondering the import of Baird’s future involvement in terms of their consultancy arrangement.
When Baird had first come to him more than five years before, he had not hesitated in offering the young Australian geologist sponsorship, and the corporate structure to facilitate his business dealings in Indonesia. Subroto recalled that time of great excitement and promise, as the New Order, under President Suharto, forged ahead, dragging the country up to competitive speed with the emerging tiger economies of Singapore and Malaysia.
In the years following Suharto’s 1966 successful coup, Subroto had watched as many of the four hundred generals appointed under the Soekarno regime were either retrenched, or shifted to inconsequential positions. Fortunately, at the time of the bloodbath, he had been seconded to the AURI rocket program that had successfully launched the Kartika 1 the year before. The Air Force’s “Project Prima”, Indonesia’s rocket research project had been conceived with the intention of developing commercial and military rockets together with the Institute of Technology in Bandung, and P.T. Pindad, the Army weapons’ factory. Subroto had been instrumental in arranging for the Japanese cooperation which had seen the Kappa 8 rocket launched, also in the year preceding the turbulent period, predicted by one Indonesian Minister as becoming ‘The Years of Living Dangerously.’
Suharto’s armed forces had inherited a number of quasi, commercial structures put more into place out of expediency than sound planning, and dated back to the time of Soekarno’s Guided Democracy when regional commanders were forced to find their own means of funding operations and meeting personnel costs. As each of the Indonesian military arms vied for control over plantations, government owned hotels, sugar mills, banks, mining and timber concessions it soon became apparent that, without the necessary capital and management skills, these ventures would collapse. Even the Army’s Strategic Forces, Kostrad, which had been awarded the Volkswagen assembly and marketing agency in the early Sixties, benefited little from this opportunity.
After the Hughes Corporation had overseen the launch of Indonesia’s first series of satellites under the Palapa Program, Subroto became concerned with his future again, as contemporaries exited the armed forces en masse, many achieving civilian posts within the Suharto Cabinet, or appointments as governors, ambassadors and CEOs of Palace-controlled and TNI foundations.
Subroto had followed, apprehensively, as retiring air force generals were not in such great demand amongst the private sector. His one-off, lump sum pension payment was insufficient to maintain any reasonable norm of lifestyle, and certainly not one he had grown accustomed to whilst still a serving general. Consequently, he had turned to Kosgoro, one of the military-controlled cooperatives for a position, and was appointed as one of the many Komisaris advisors, to the Board of Directors. However, when (Danny) Dewanto Danusubroto, the Kosgoro President Komisaris was jailed for having the military murder his mistress not months after Subroto had joined the organization, Subroto wisely chose to move out on his own, where he met Eric Baird – and his fortunes instantly improved.
At first, their relationship had grown from strength to strength, Baird instrumental in delivering a number of substantial retainers that provided the former air force general with the wherewithal to reestablish his credentials. Within the year, Subroto had acquired a fully imported 450 Mercedes saloon (smuggled into the country by a Chinese expedition agent) and paid a nominal sum through the Veterans’ Association, to secure ownership of a Dutch Colonial home in Jalan Serang, Menteng. He renovated the residence and contracted the magnificent dwelling to one of his foreign clients, receiving a five-year, advance rental payment of three hundred thousand dollars, which he invested in property around the growing, expatriate suburbs of Kemang and Cilandak. But, influenced by Baird and his associate Kremenchug, Subroto had lunged into the stock market prior to the Independence celebrations on 17th August 1987, borrowing heavily to acquire mining stocks which Kremenchug claimed would double within the year. The following week, the markets peaked, and eight weeks later Subroto discovered that he had lost all that he had borrowed from the Asian Pacific Commercial Bank.
With