Concrete measures<\/p>\n
The Washington Post reported yesterday (Thursday) that an
\n(unnamed) International Monetary Fund official had expressed his
\ndissatisfaction over the economic reform measures taken by the
\nIndonesian government. The international monetary institution
\nreportedly considered Indonesia to be lacking in sincerity in its
\nefforts to improve the country's economy. Among other things,
\nIndonesia was seen to be continuing to maintain industries which
\nsquander foreign exchange and protecting the business interests
\nof select groups, remained reluctant to strive for a budget
\nsurplus and was reluctant to raise taxes and abolish oil fuel
\nsubsidies. Those, according to the IMF official, are among the
\nconditions set by the IMF for disbursement of the entire US$43
\nbillion aid package.<\/p>\n
It is this kind of news that apparently causes the market to
\ncontinue to be volatile and the rupiah to lose value. Our
\neconomists and government officials are saying that what we are
\nexperiencing at present is a lack of confidence in the rupiah.
\nHowever, considering that even people who have nothing to do with
\nthe dollar trade are panicking, it seems that we are faced with a
\nlarger problem. What we are experiencing at present is better
\ndescribed as a lack of confidence in the economy, and not just
\nthe rupiah.<\/p>\n
If this is the case, then the government should immediately
\nmove to take concrete economic reform measures. And because
\neconomic matters in this country are very closely related to
\npolitics, political reform measures are unavoidable as well. Both
\neconomic and political reform manifest themselves in the presence
\nof transparent, antimonopolistic, antidiscriminatory and
\nantiprotectionist policies and in a willingness to be controlled
\nby society or its representative institutions.<\/p>\n
Cliche? Certainly. But it is cliche notions such as these that
\nare at the root of the problem that we are now compelled to
\nconfront. And so far this central problem has never been
\nseriously tackled. In a situation such as the present, mere calls
\non the public not to panic or efforts to calm people by telling
\nthem that the situation will soon improve will clearly not be
\neffective. What people are waiting for are concrete measures.<\/p>\n
-- Republika, Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/concrete-measures-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }