Tommy’s Timor sells for about $10000 almost half the cost of similar imported

Tommy’s Timor sells for about $10,000, almost half the cost of similar imported models.Underlying the exasperation is a great deal of tension, and a sense that the achievements of Suharto’s “New Order” are starting to unravel. The President was treated for a heart condition earlier this year and as he grows weaker, political opposition to his government is becoming more vocal. In July, Jakartans rioted after government-backed thugs raided the headquarters of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party; dozens of non-violent political opponents were arbitrarily arrested.Nobody stands out as a successor to Suharto, and the prospect of an uncertain or violent succession terrifies many Indonesians – among them, surely, the President’s children. Their enormous greed, and their father’s willingness to indulge it, smacks of desperation, a sense that time is running out.. Several leading City figures are expected to be strongly criticised in a Department of Trade and Industry report on the Guinness affair to be published next week, 10 years after government inspectors were sent in to investigate the company. The long-delayed report is to be published “within days” of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on whether accepted civil liberties were infringed in prosecuting Ernest Saunders, the former Guinness chairman, and others.
Government sources say the report will be published regardless of whether the European Court comes down in favour of Mr Saunders. Judgment is expected to be handed down on Tuesday.The DTI report has already been redrafted to take account of the acquittal on theft charges of Thomas Ward, the American lawyer caught up in the Guinness affair, and the Serious Fraud Office’s decision to drop proceedings against David Mayhew, a senior partner of the stockbrokers Cazenove.However, the DTI’s inspectors, David Donaldson QC and Ian Watt, remain scathing in their analysis of events surrounding Guinness’s bid for Distillers in the mid-1980s and highly critical of a number of those involved.One source said: “This is going to be a big embarrassment to those hoping the Guinness affair had gone away for good.

It’s coming back to haunt them.”The report steers clear of criticising the professionals caught up in the affair – lawyers and accountants – but there is severe castigation of eight of the main protagonists. Also singled out for strong criticism is Morgan Grenfell, which advised Guinness on the Distillers takeover. Several others are cited in language that alleges negligence and varying degrees of involvement.The report also touches on some smaller “share support” frauds which took place in the City at about the same time.No view is expressed on whether part of a secret pounds 5.2m payment by Guinness which mysteriously passed through Mr Saunders’ Swiss bank account was intended for him Mr Saunders has consistently denied it. The episode was never the subject of charges against Mr Saunders, but the payment was examined at length during his trial.The Guinness affair resulted in the conviction for fraud of four men – Mr Saunders, Tony Parnes, the stockbroker, Gerald Ronson, the property tycoon, and Sir Jack Lyons, patron of the arts. All except the last of these were jailed.Criminal proceedings against a further three, David Mayhew, Lord Spens and Roger Seelig, were abandoned while Mr Ward was acquitted after a lengthy fight against extradition from the US.The DTI report deals with Guinness’s attempt artificially to inflate its own share price during the contested pounds 2.7bn bid for Distillers, thereby enhancing its chances of winning.Guinness secretly indemnified a series of “supporters” against any loss they might sustain in buying the company’s shares.

Some pounds 25m was later paid in “success fees” and commissions, much of it through obscurely named nominee companies in off-shore tax havens.One former Guinness defendant said last night that it did not surprise him that the report was being rushed out. “They [the authorities] want to defuse any ruling against them in the European Court and this is one way of doing it,” he said.Mr Saunders maintains his prosecution was unfair since it was partly based on evidence collected by DTI inspectors, who had deprived him of his right of silence. Under the Financial Services Act witnesses are obliged to answer the questions of inspectors on pain of imprisonment. There is as a consequence no protection against self-incrimination.Lawyers familiar with the case expect the European Court to come down strongly against the Government in its use of DTI inspectors to collect evidence. However, the judges are not expected to overturn the conviction and may go further by publicly stating the prosecution would have succeeded even in the absence of the DTI transcripts. Publication of the report will bring to a close one of the most protracted episodes in British corporate history..

Buoyant consumer spending is bringing the threat of higher inflation and imports, while the strong pound has started to hit exports. So official figures on retail prices and the latest CBI survey of industry suggested yesterday. Rising prices on the high street meant the target measure of inflation did not edge down in November, disappointing some economists. Many believe interest rates should go up if the Government wants to hit its inflation target. Separately, the CBI reported that the rise in the exchange rate had taken export orders to their lowest for nearly three years.

It predicted a ballooning balance of payments deficit next year.
“It is a weaker form of the classic British pattern of rising inflation and a balance of payments gap, although we do have a better performance by UK companies now,” said Sudhir Junankar, a CBI economist.Eddie George, Governor of the Bank of England, speaking in Lisbon the evening after Wednesday’s monetary meeting, repeated his view that base rates need to rise. “The sooner the question is addressed, the better,” he said, although he added that rates would not have to go much higher.Most City experts believe that although the Governor did not persuade Kenneth Clarke to take his advice this week, the Chancellor will be forced to act in January or February.The Treasury said November’s 3.3 per cent inflation on the target measure was likely to fall during the next few months, as a period of falling prices last year dropped out of the 12-month rate.However, the details of yesterday’s figures suggested that retailers might be trying to increase their margins in the face of strong consumer demand. Prices for household goods increased by 1 per cent during the month, and clothing and footwear prices were up 1.1 per cent following a record 5.2 per cent increase in September.The price of leisure goods increased by 0.6 per cent. Motoring costs fell in November, but not as much as a year earlier. Service prices rose little during the month but are trending upwards.Lower food prices off-set much of the damage, falling 0.4 per cent during November to a level only 1.5 per cent above a year earlier. Meat prices fell sharply, especially pork and poultry, reversing some of the big increases triggered by the beef crisis.Concerns about inflation were increased by a jump in the balance of manufacturers planning to raise their prices, from 8 per cent to 12 per cent.