Wihartjo arrived in Paris in full pomp with his Director General and the key staff from the Ministry of Forests, the Indonesian group also included Sutrawan and his team from Bintang Agung. In addition Sutrawan had invited, for the ride, two of his wealthy and close friends, the Philippino, Thomas Lee, and the Singaporean, Robbie Tan.
Gao arrived directly from Taipei, the following day. As usual he was alone, low cost and low profile, compared to the noisy Indonesian group, which totalled sixteen people.
The high point of the program was to be the official signing of the joint-venture agreement for the construction of the Forestry Industries Complex, between the Indonesian state owned company Hutan Industri and Papcon on behalf of the consortium,.
The signing ceremony was to take place at the Indonesian Embassy, in the presence of, His Excellency the Indonesian Ambassador, recorded for posterity by photographers and reporters, with news teams from the main French and Indonesian television channels.
It was to be a grand event, the culmination of two years work and studies to demonstrate the feasibility and bankability of the project.
The group was booked into the Inter-Continental Hotel, on rue Castiglione, in the centre of Paris. Papcon had organised the programme down to the smallest detail, including a fleet of limousines to drive them to the different ceremonies and receptions that had been organised. Sutrawan and his friends organised the entertainment with the assistance of the embassy protocol officer...including a string of attractive and available girls.
The first formal event on the programme was Strecker’s invitation to Wihartjo, Sutrawan and the Ambassador, in the company of the representatives of the consortium, to a high Parisian style lunch at Laurent, a celebrated restaurant on the Champs Elysee Gardens, which was considered by certain to be one of the finest in France.
Sutrawan, replied by an invitation the following day to Le Doyen, it was a restaurant of similar standing and lay in the gardens on the other opposite side of the Champs Elysee, it had been suggested to him by the protocol officer, who to avoid a faux pas chose a repeat of the French invitation. The main dish on the menu in each of the restaurants and at every other invitation was lamb. Riady, prompted by the Indonesians, diplomatically asked whether lamb was a special delicacy in France, suggesting if not, they would appreciate a change.
The restaurants had been informed by the ever efficient protocol officer and Strecker’s staff that the guests were Muslims, and afraid of offending their Islamic customs, they had carefully instructed each Maitre d’hôtel that pork and any other suspect food be excluded from the menu. They also instructed that alcohol be served in modest amounts, all to the great dismay of Sutrawan and his Chinese friends, and the general indifference of the Indonesians.
The evenings programmes took place in a much more congenial atmosphere, not only was the menu Sutrawan’s choice but also the alcohol and rest of the evenings entertainment. He was faithful to his routine, which never varied, it was Chinese restaurants then back to his suite, drinking XO well into the night, with the girls to care for their every need.
The next day the signing ceremony was carried out a great pomp, presided by the Ambassador in the grand salle of the splendid Empire style embassy. They were seated at a long felt covered table, under the flags of Indonesia and France, and the glare of the lights aimed at them by the television crews. Brodzski was in his glory; as the documents, in leather folders, were circulated for signatures, first to Wihartjo, then himself, followed by Sutrawan.
Filled with the glow of their success, they left France in a euphoric mood on the Sunday morning, taking off from Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport, for Washington DC where they arrived at Dulles International Airport in the early afternoon, losing only a couple of hours taking into account the time difference.
They were booked into the Washington Hilton nearby the celebrated Watergate. The Hilton was a sober edifice in the chilly early March weather, with few weekend guests.
Their meetings with the IFC were scheduled for the following morning, when they the planned to start with a formal presentation of the Barito Project and the results of the feasibility study. It was to be followed by discussions on their application for IFC participation in the capital and loans.
The large group made their way by several taxis to the World Bank Building, on H Street. Their number caused some confusion at their arrival before they were directed to the conference room on the fourth floor, where Dahlqvist was waiting to welcome them.
Fortunately, a large room had been reserved for their meetings. Excluding Thomas Lee and Robbie Tan, who were not official members of the group, the party’s ranks had swollen to eighteen with the arrival of the Finns and Germans.
Ennis opened the proceedings, with the formalities of introductions and presentations of the Indonesians parties, government and private, followed by the consortium members. There was a relaxed atmosphere of friendly confidence, even though the IFC staff was a little embarrassed and surprised by the visitors numbers, which they had not anticipated.
At the end of the morning, a lunch was prepared in a private dinning room. They were a little cramped, but the friendly atmosphere of the lunch was felt to be a positive sign, with Dahlqvist warmly wishing the group success in their venture.
After lunch, they all returned to the Hilton, feeling pleased with the morning’s discussions and in a good mood decided to explore Washington. Ennis was caught between the Indonesians arrangement and that of the Consortium members. They finally separated into several groups, because of the unwieldy size of a single party. Axelmann joined Ennis and they headed in the direction of the White House, whilst Brodzski preferred to take a nap in his room to recover from the time difference. They congratulated themselves on the smooth organisation; it was practically in the bag.
The next morning, they returned to the IFC offices at ten. They had programmed a technical presentation and working meeting with Dahlqvist’s specialists. James Bergstein, an investment analyst, a brash young American, whose speciality was forestry industries, which included pulp and paper, chaired it.
The meeting started well enough, but Bergstein soon showed that he was as cold and insensitive as his name suggested. With all the lack of finesse and diplomacy of an American, playing out the role of the universal public servant wielding his institutional authority, and without the slightest consideration for the rank of the persons seated before him, a respected minister who was a member of the government of one of the World Banks shareholders, he aggressively attacked the project, demolishing it slowly, the plantations, the loggers, the financing, the markets and the partners, both private and government.
The pain on Wihartjo’s face was great, whilst Sutrawan did not hide his dismay his mouth open and the ash from his Kretek falling the blank writing pad set before him.
Brodzski after his initial surprise counter-attacked, growling like a pit bull that had been provoked.
Bergstein’s worst knock was reserved for the consortium members. In a barely veiled accusation of profiteering, he pulled their project to pieces for lack of real capital, declaring that the ten percent participation, proposed by the consortium, was nothing more than excess profits built in to the price. It was true, a common ploy was known to all parties in such projects.
Bergstein chose to totally ignore the needs and wishes of the Indonesians, desperately short of investment capital, to create an industry to exploit their natural resources for the growing needs of their vast and growing population, and to replace expensive imported pulp coming mainly from the USA.
The Indonesians as the other potential shareholders were not completely naive; it was evident that the mill price was padded. They had not the financial means or the choice but to proceed in that manner, as they and their neighbours had done on their long road to industrial development and modernisation. Investors asked themselves, what industrialist or manufacturer would invest his capital on low returns and high risks, there had to be an incentive which was in effect the low capital to be paid in dollar terms. The real capital was the forest and the low cost human resources of Indonesia.
It was another case of Washington based institutions imposing American capital structure and business ethics in a world that was a galaxy removed from their own, as they had, to their regret, on so many previous occasions.
The meeting collapsed in disgust and embarrassment. They were overwhelmed by the extraordinary lack of experience and diplomacy of Bergstein, and the manner in which he addressed long established and successful industrialists such as Gao and Sutrawan, who employed thousands of workers in their manufacturing plants across Asia, and the brutal humiliation he inflicted on a senior Minister of the Indonesian Government before all those present.
They returned to the hotel, breaking down into their respected groups, heading for the bar or to their suites. They were shocked, in the best case, they had been thrown out, and even worse it seemed that their project that had been thrown out. Two years work had been turned upside down in two hours; they felt they had been set up. Dahlqvist had diplomatically disappeared.
It must have been planned, Riady muttered darkly to those who cared to listen.
The soonest to recover was Wihartjo, adopting a philosophical face saving attitude, saying that they would find other sources of financing, as they had in the past, and as they would in the future.
Sutrawan agreed with him. They were recovering from the shock and anger, at their out of hand rejection by an American, who understood nothing of their world, in his own artificial universe of a Washington, dictating his conditions to a so called developing nation, an old culture, which had existed before Columbus had set foot in the new world. Their deception soon gave way to anger reinforcing their will to fight back and defend their efforts and plans.
The Europeans were depressed, especially the Finns, who lacked a certain flexibility of imagination to imagine anything but the collapse and abandonment of the project, accepting rejection for its face value without fighting back.
Brodzski was not only deeply embarrassed but furious, accusing all of those around him of betrayal, especially Ennis, forgetting that Dahlqvist was his own good friend.
The party hurriedly broke up to lick their wounds in private, with each of them booking the earliest flight home. They parted with terse goodbyes and vague suggestions for their next meeting.
Ennis remained with Sutrawan who was scheduled to leave for the West Coast, they promised an early meeting after consulting with the other parties on the next move. Brodzski departed to Paris furious in the company of a puzzled Strecker.