Winata Sighting

Tommy Winata has been in town again.....looking to get some land. One of Indonesia's wealthiest men, he likes to build casinos. He is also a very good friend of certain general's - see here for background. He also entertains Timorese officials at his Jakarta Hotel Borobodur frequently.

As reported by the Australian media in May 2008, "Now, a former associate of Indonesian generals, businessman Tommy Winata, is rumoured to be looking around Dili to build a casino, with Gusmao's blessing."

More background on Winata's Artha Graha Bank and its connections to general's is here.

Then again he could be here looking to plant hybrid rice. One other blogger writes
Benih Prima and Benih Super strains; High-quality seeds produced by PT Sumber Alam Sutera*, an agriculture company owned by tycoon Tommy Winata.

Rai nakdoko ka lae?

So there Xanana was: sitting there in his suite in the Hotel Borobodur in Jakarta and he heard Fransisco Xavier Amaral was going to pull out of the AMP Coalition Government that he leads. A shaky four legged chair became an even shakier three legged chair. Rai nakdoko ka lae? I understand that his reaction was cold anger. Leading an entourage of 72 Ministers, Secretaries of State, Directors, advisers and other assorted flotsam and jetsam Xanana cut short his trip and returned to Dili. How times have changed since this file photo from April 2002.

His host, the owner of the Hotel Borobodur, apparently footed the bill on behalf of the Government of Indonesia, or Timor-Leste - who knows. The owner is a certain Tommy Winata(http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Winata). Friend, banker and political confidant of many of the same TNI generals that the Truth and Friendship Commission is "looking at". But more on Tommy in Timor later.