Eastern region's plight<\/p>\n
It is understandable if the people living on Indonesia's
\neastern islands of Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Irian
\nJaya, now want to see more concerted efforts by the central
\ngovernment to accelerate the pace of development in their region.
\nAfter all, it is now almost five years since President Soeharto
\ndeclared what economists call the \"go-east policy\".<\/p>\n
The stage of economic development in the eastern islands lags
\nso far behind the western region, notably Java, that the regional
\ndisparity will tend to widen if the pace of development in the
\neastern islands is not sped up. Even with an accelerated rate of
\ndevelopment, it may take more than 10 years for those provinces
\nto catch up with the western region.<\/p>\n
We don't want to even try to seek a scapegoat for the
\ndichotomy as there really is no one to blame. The problem is
\nmostly the consequence of having to set a scale of priorities for
\nthe development of such a vast archipelago with such limited
\nresources.<\/p>\n
It was legitimate and economically sensible that when the
\ngovernment started well-planned development programs in the late
\n1960s the emphasis was on Java where the majority of the
\npopulation lived. It was also rather a standard industrial
\ndevelopment policy at that time to begin with the building of
\nimport-substitution manufacturing industries because the primary
\nobjective was to meet domestic demand. Obviously, the infant
\nindustries were protected from import competition and were
\ngranted various incentives and facilities.<\/p>\n
It was also part of a normal development process if at that
\ntime the bulk of economic activities in the eastern region
\nconsisted of extraction industries, such as logging, and the
\nharvest of other forestry products, such as rattan and resin,
\nbesides fishing, mining and cultivation of such crops as
\ncoconuts, vanilla, nutmeg and cloves. And quite a portion of the
\nprimary commodities from the eastern region were shipped to Java
\nwhere the development of manufacturing industries was still
\nconcentrated.<\/p>\n
It was also true that many of the primary commodities were
\nsubjected to regulated trade to secure adequate supplies of cheap
\ninput for the industries in Java. The policy was not unusual for
\na country which had just started its industrialization process.
\nAfter all, Indonesia is a unitary and not a federal country.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, what was at that time seen as a normal and
\nacceptable development process could become a source of political
\ndisillusionment for the people in the eastern region if
\ndevelopment there is not accelerated. It is indeed their turn now
\nto get bigger resource allocations to help their provinces catch
\nup with the development in the western region.<\/p>\n
Numerous seminars have been held to discuss developmental
\nproblems in the eastern region. So we reckon the government has
\nreceived various sets of policy recommendations on how to speed
\nup the eastern region's development. The main point in almost all
\nof the policy recommendations suggests that a pure market
\napproach will not be effective for such a least developed region.
\nThe private sector will not be interested in establishing
\noperations in the eastern region. Businessmen follow the market.
\nThat means, whereas the government has increasingly withdrawn
\nfrom many sectors in Java in line with the deregulation and
\nprivatization process, it should instead directly and heavily
\ninvolve itself in building up infrastructure and support services
\nin the eastern region. While subsidies are being phased out of
\nmost economic sectors in Java, that kind of financing is largely
\nneeded to develop basic industrial infrastructure and services in
\nthe eastern provinces.<\/p>\n
We fully sympathize with the plight of the people in the
\neastern region. We share their worries about their region's
\neconomic competitiveness in the year 2003 when the ASEAN free
\ntrade area begins and in the year 2020 when the free trade area
\nexpands to cover the Asia-Pacific region. It is indeed high time
\nfor the government to embark on a massive program to lay strong
\nfoundations for accelerated development of the eastern provinces.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/eastern-regions-plight-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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