Greater courage needed to face the reality<\/p>\n
Indonesia's economic crisis bites deep and spares no one.
\nWimar Witoelar, a TV host and public affairs commentator,
\nreflects on this issue and suggests possibile wayout.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): It must be a bad dream. The canceled vacation
\ntrips, computer replacement and office furnishing plans are
\nabandoned like the mega projects we were so satisfied to finally
\nget out of the way.<\/p>\n
These are trivial sacrifices compared to the plight we see
\neveryday of more and more workers without jobs and families
\nwithout incomes.<\/p>\n
Quiet desperation hidden by the stoic facades of people
\ntrained to accept fate. As if trapped in a deep well as the
\nrising water level threatens to drown us, we watch the steadily
\nrising prices.<\/p>\n
First with a sense of amazement how this could have happened,
\nthen with horror as we realize that our buying power has sunk to
\n20 percent of six months ago.<\/p>\n
Thinking analytically gives some perspective, as we realize
\nmany more people are worse off than middle class people are like
\nus are. The poor and deprived have to fight for their very
\nsurvival, the rich and powerful have their castles crumble into
\ndust.<\/p>\n
The only rescue is to have the financial system start to pump
\nlife into the economy. Before the Idul Fitri holidays, the
\ngovernment deployed the first of the last weapons of defense. the
\ncentral bank issued sweeping regulations, which guaranteed claims
\non local banks from both depositors and creditors.<\/p>\n
A special body is set up to restructure ailing banks. Strange,
\nmarket response has been cool and cautious, and many do not
\nunderstand the implications. Good policy initiatives are diluted
\nby panic measures adding to the confusion.<\/p>\n
A powerful businessman falls out of favor and out of sight,
\nancient regulations take away travelers' money at the airport and
\na new one imposes a stiff exit tax on people who are supposed to
\nprepare for AFTA and be more aggressive in exports and being
\nbetter internationalists in general.<\/p>\n
Misdirected solidarity symbols make it more difficult to see
\nthe problem clearly. As people turn against each other,
\nunscrupulous propagandists bring out sentiments against the
\nethnic Chinese and foreign governments.<\/p>\n
This distracts attention away from twenty years of government
\ncorruption and business collusion with the power elite, which
\nhave made an economic crisis out of international monetary
\nturbulence.<\/p>\n
The problem from the beginning has been very clear. The
\nsolution is simple if we face the reality of bad government.
\nGovernment is part of the problem, but it requires courage just
\nto say that.<\/p>\n
Many say that the key to economic stabilization is the
\nhandling of our US$65 billion private sector debt. The market is
\nnervous because of fears of a general moratorium on the payment
\nof private-sector debt, according to one rating agency. Radius
\nPrawiro as the President's appointee to find a solution is on his
\ntoughest assignment yet, as an encore to a highly successful
\ncareer. But if he does not recognize the simplicity of the
\nproblem, this will be mission impossible.<\/p>\n
Although the Japanese are our largest creditor at more than
\n$23 billion, it is interesting to see the reaction of U.S.
\nbankers. The difference in their attitude towards South Korea's
\ndebt and ours reveals the nature of our situation. Backed by U.S.
\ngovernment pressure, they are likely to roll over their loans in
\nKorea, a supportive position they are unlikely to adopt in
\nIndonesia under current circumstances.<\/p>\n
This stark differentiation in fact points to the most
\nimportant principle to grasp in seeking a way out of our national
\ncrisis.<\/p>\n
Let us look closer to the reasons why U.S. bankers prefer
\nSouth Korea to Indonesia. First, South Korea is a military ally
\nof the U.S. But that is not the key issue. The key strength of
\nthe South Korean recovery is that the country has just elected a
\nperson with a reputation for total commitment to democratic
\nreform. Hence the U.S. and the IMF see the fundamentals in the
\ncountry as positive.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, in contrast, is suffering under a 32-year regime,
\nalmost certain of extension over the silent protest of a large
\nsegment of the literate public. Korea is a good business risk:
\nIndonesia is a leaky bucket into which addition of water will
\njust leak out again into our high cost economy. There is no
\nindication that the nation's leadership has repented the lack of
\nethics and blatant violation of all sound business practices and
\nstatesmanship.<\/p>\n
Prawiro has to overcome a market highly skeptical of the
\nIndonesian government's political will. He is not equipped to
\nface the challenge of returning national confidence, because it
\nrequires a political will absent in his technocratic tradition.
\nHe, like many otherwise smart officials lack the kind of
\npolitical will to present the problem in terms of its roots.<\/p>\n
Lacking that courage, the representatives of the people in the
\nMPR will not even go through the exercise of evaluating options
\nto come out of the crisis, which could call for an orderly change
\nof national leadership.<\/p>\n
Y.B. Mangunwijaya said in this newspaper last week that we are
\nvery strange people. We all know what the problem is. We all know
\nthe cause of the problem, we all know that we need fresh
\nleadership to deal with the problem. We know that ultimately
\nchange will happen because it is inevitable. But nobody wants to
\ntake the initiative.<\/p>\n
Now there is really no choice. The choice of a new leader has
\nto be made on rational considerations. It is not a matter of
\npreference or even loyalty to the current leadership. They are
\ndragging the nation down by failing to detach their vested
\ninterests from the national interest, and they are even dragging
\nthemselves and their families down by not gracefully accepting
\nreality.<\/p>\n
An orderly transition of power under national consensus will
\nopen the door to a quick solution to the national crisis. First
\nthe private sector debt will be rescheduled like in South Korea.
\nThis will invite the return of direct foreign investments and
\ncapital into the Jakarta Stock Exchange. IMF and bilateral
\nassistance can be concentrated on macro economic housekeeping as
\nan empowered population will continue the momentum of political
\nreform. The bonus of a clean government is ours if we choose the
\nright leader. This will tone down the high cost economy and
\nimprove our international competitiveness.<\/p>\n
With the remaining weakness of our currency we will have all
\nthe tools of a genuine export drive. Indonesia will emerge as a
\nstrong economic power, this time without the illusion created by
\nfinancial pyramiding.<\/p>\n
All the components of a recovery scenario will be available if
\nwe have the courage to act in the national interest. Our
\nrepresentatives in the MPR that they will earn the nation's
\ngratitude and the world's respect for remembering that they are,
\nafter all, representatives of the people and not of anyone else.
\nThis will be the moment of truth in a simple but historical
\npolitical process.<\/p>\n
Editorial -- Page 4<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/greater-courage-needed-to-face-the-reality-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }