Debt and economies crisis sinking RI
Debt and economies crisis sinking RI
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
With US$139 billion in foreign debt coupled with a crippling
economic crisis, Indonesia is like a ship that has almost sunk.
That was the figure of speech that Vice President Hamzah Haz
used on Monday to describe how Indonesia was in the middle of a
life-and-death battle for survival.
"It's a good thing that the 'ship' has not sunk, as many have
feared," he said, when addressing the National Love Flowers and
Fauna Day.
Hamzah was defending the government's views on the bleak
economic prospects that President Megawati Soekarnoputri had
acknowledged in her accountability speech to the People's
Consultative Assembly on Thursday.
Hamzah said the country's crisis was due to an accumulation of
problems and the mishandling of economic activities over the past
three decades.
The heaviest burden that Indonesia has to shoulder is foreign
debt, which consists of $72 billion in government debt and $67
billion in private debt as of April, according to the Indonesian
central bank.
The sinking economy is only one problem, Hamzah said. There is
a host of others, such as environmental destruction and acute
social ills.
Critics say that the Megawati administration has done little
to assist the economic recovery. Nothing has improved since she
ascended the presidency three months ago.
"When they say that over the last 100 days the government
economic team has not yet achieved anything, I say it is
fortunate that the country has not sunk yet," Hamzah remarked.
"Our economic condition is very critical, every aspect of our
life is in danger ...," he added.
He said that economic indicators showed the country should
already have sunk due to the mismanagement of resources in the
past three decades, so it would be impossible to see signs of
recovery very soon.
Hamzah said the government had to recover some Rp 600 trillion
(US$600 million) of losses from the private sector, which
collapsed after being hit by the economic crisis in 1997.