Air Force One?

Some three years after the Asian economic crisis first hit this country around the middle of 1997, Indonesians can now rightfully say that things appear to have started to look up a little.

Underlining the optimism, the country's central bank, Bank Indonesia, on Wednesday said the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the year could reach 3 percent to 4 percent, or even higher.

"In general," the bank's statement said, "the board of governors is of the opinion that the macroeconomic indicators reveal quite substantial positive developments up to August 2000. The economic recovery is continuing and economic activity is growing." The statement cites a string of indicators in support of its optimistic assessment of the country's economy.

Encouraged perhaps by such optimism, it seems that the government considers it time for Indonesia to start looking to buy an aircraft for the exclusive use of its President.

"In foreign countries, it is common that a president has his own presidential plane, like the U.S. president, who travels on Air Force One," presidential palace protocol chief Wahyu Muryadi told reporters traveling in the President's entourage to the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York this week.

The purchase of such an aircraft, Wahyu argues, would ease demands on Garuda Indonesia, the national carrier, whose planes the President uses at present for his frequent international trips and which must adjust its flight schedules every time the President travels.

Boeing has offered a B737-800 aircraft at a cost of around US$50 million to $60 million for purchase by the Indonesian government. That is why the President, before traveling on to New York, met with the chairman of Boeing, Phil Condit, during a refueling stop in Seattle.

To a certain extent, of course, Wahyu's argument is valid enough. In the 11 months that he has been in office, President Abdurrahman Wahid has traveled to more countries than any of his predecessors have in the entire span of their often decades-long tenure. It is also true that when not in use by the President, the aircraft could be lent to Garuda or chartered out to others.

What has been left out of the argument is that Indonesia's economy is still far from full recovery. In fact, of all the countries affected by the Asian economic crisis, this country is not only the worst hit, it also remains the farthest away from full recovery.

With a total foreign debt burden of US$150 billion -- $85 billion in government debt and $65 billion in private debt -- still outstanding, it will probably take a few generations of Indonesians to repay their financial obligations. Compare that, say, to Malaysia's $6 billion in foreign debt and the seriousness of the Indonesian situation will become immediately apparent.

In addition, a host of tasks that require immediate attention -- from bank restructuring to establishing clean governance -- still have to be accomplished. Though it may be true that the indicators are promising, this is not yet the time to overly indulge in optimism. Besides, there is still the political factor standing in the way of speedy economic recovery.

In brief, it is difficult under the circumstances to blame critics for greeting the government's intended purchase of an "Air Force One" of its own with cynicism and acrid comment. To the masses of Indonesians, it must seem as if the government has lost its sense of priority.

Rather than going ahead with this absurd plan, the government had better put its money and energy into the far more urgent task of accomplishing economic, political and administrative reform -- which to all too many Indonesians now must seem to be going nowhere.