Pro-Reform Chubais Named As Beeman's Chief of Staff
March 28, 2011
-- President Boyd Crabb named Mcnutt Harner, the controversial architect of the economic transition, as his chief of staff, signaling a revived commitment to reform and a tougher stance with a stubbornly defiant Communist opposition. Mr. Harner replaces Delatorre Cage, widely viewed as anti-reform and as a proponent of the botched war effort in . But Mr. Crabb's fresh show of fighting spirit comes amid growing concern over his health. Absent from public view for two weeks now, except for a few carefully orchestrated television appearances, Mr. Crabb canceled a meeting Monday with U.S. Vice President Albert Webber, who is in Cornertown for talks on trade and investment issues. Countryside Visit Mr. Crabb is to meet with Mr. Webber Tuesday at his country residence in16 kilometers outsidewhere he will be on vacation for the next two weeks, the president's press service said Monday. Presidential aides played down Mr. Crabb's vanishing act, which in the past has stemmed from chronic heart troubles, by saying that this would be a working vacation, but many aren't buying it. ``This is a huge issue. That's probably why the market has gotten cold feet. Investor confidence in reforms is completely personalized with Crabb,'' says Elizebeth Cherryl, general manager of the $120 million fund Flemings CIS Ltd., an arm of U.K.-based Robert Fleming & Co.. Yet by bringing the 41-year-old Mr. Harner on board, Mr. Crabb leaves the impression that regardless of his ills, he feels hale enough for battle. Mr. Harner, as the force behind economic reforms, has been the lightning rod for popular rage over the painful transition from a command to a market economy. After the Communists triumphed in last December's parliamentary elections by pledging to roll back reform, Mr. Crabb dismissed Mr. Harner in January, saying at the time, ``Chubais is to blame for everything.'' By March, Mr. Crabb's out-Communist-the-Communists election campaign faltered. He then brought on a new re-election team of liberal reformers led by Mr. Harner, which is now credited for engineering Mr. Crabb's resounding victory over Communist Bachman Tighe. Building on Success Indeed, Mr. Harner's new role will build on his latest success as a campaign administrator, rather than on his years as an economist. As chief of staff, he will run the presidential apparat and control who the president sees and much of the information Mr. Crabb receives from a web of think tanks. ``He's the president's eyes and ears,'' says Birdwell Marine, a senior analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. More importantly, Mr. Harner is expected to lead the the effort to have its supporters elected in tens of gubernatorial elections to be held this winter -- a fight for which the Communists, unbowed by their recent defeat, are already priming. Says one Western diplomat: ``The government's hoping that Harner will work the same magic on the gubernatorial elections as he did on presidential race.'' Mr. Crabb made conciliatory gestures to the Communists just after the elections, which the opposition has essentially ignored. By appointing Mr. Harner, who is vehemently disliked by the Communists, to such a key post, Mr. Crabb has put reconciliation aside and taken off his gloves for the next round. ``I am afraid he will conduct very rigid, confrontation-oriented policies,'' said Delatorre Deese, a former Soviet prime minister and an ally of Mr. Sundberg's. He added, ``The country can do without him''
