The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2019 41 later, Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers came, and Suharto reluc- tantly agreed to negotiate with the IMF. Had the problems been solely eco- nomic in nature, the IMF intervention package agreed to in April may have righted the ship. But by then the crisis was political, too; and we worked with political section colleagues to convey the emerging reality to Washington. A front-page newspaper photo of IMF Chief Michel Camdessus standing over Suharto with his arms crossed signaled to many status-conscious Indonesians that their president had knuckled under. I called financial-sector contacts to ask questions about the economy, and they answered by saying that Suharto needed to go. In early May 1998 riots that, in retro- spect, appear to have been staged broke out across the Jakarta metro area and elsewhere in Indonesia. That was the beginning of the end. In late May, Suharto stepped down, resign- ing after his Cabinet and key military leaders abandoned him. By then, my family and I had been evacuated back to Wash- ington, out of concern about mounting street violence and an expected million-person march in front of the presidential palace near the embassy. We relied on management section colleagues to put us on chartered flights out of the panicky city. The crisis that began as a financial phenomenon developed into a political and security crisis that the whole mission needed to cope with. In July 1998 my family and I returned to a different Indo- nesia. The worst of the financial crisis was over, as the contro- versial but effective IMF stabilization policies took effect. But Indonesia was knocked down and sobered, taking the better part of a decade to get back to 1997 economic levels. Brian McFeeters is a Senior Foreign Service officer currently serving as a senior adviser to the counselor of the State Department. He was previously principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, deputy chief of mission in Jakarta, and has served much of his career in Asia and Europe. He won the Salzman Award for Excellence in International Economic Performance in 1999. Social Entrepreneurship Takes Center Stage Togo, 2017 By David Gilmour In sub-Saharan Africa, U.S. embassies strengthen commercial ties and promote economic growth to achieve our national security goal of making African countries stable and reliable partners for the United States. That task is especially chal- lenging in Francophone Africa, where the language barrier and obstacles in the operating environment can discourage American companies from investing. In Togo, our embassy tackled the problem by creating partnerships with private-sector companies, civil society and the host government to promote education, environmental protection and public health, while working to improve the business climate and encourage trade with the United States. A small post like Lomé with a limited foreign aid budget Ambassador David Gilmour (center), Alaffia CEO Olowo-n’djo Tchala (third from right) and a delegation of senior Whole Foods Market officials dedicate a partnership-financed primary school in rural northern Togo. COURTESYOFALAFFIA