Don't be pessimistic

I am referring to Satish Mishra's article published in The Jakarta Post on Nov. 19, 2002 titled Indonesia's journey: Is the glass half empty?.

Satish Mishra wrote: "This transformation is nothing less than a metamporphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. The pessimist sees only the mangled remains of a caterpillar. ... one also observes the emerging wings of a butterfly."

I agree that some Indonesians also see what you do as "the emerging wings of a butterfly". These are the people who have savings accounts (like you?), in U.S. dollars or a lot of rupiah! They're the rich who gained most of their wealth during Soeharto's corrupt regime.

We don't need to be pessimistic, as you said, but how tiny their numbers are in Indonesia! In 1997-1998 they made up only 2 percent of the whole population. And many of them left to settle in foreign countries to continue investing their capital. So how much of the population stayed behind?

These rich people are doing business importing luxury goods, such as expensive cars, entertainment gadgets and so on. Who can afford them? But yet the goods sell out! Amazing, isn't it?

Most of these luxury cars belong to the new ruling class and the rich only!

Have you seen how the majority of people live in Indonesia? Look at the 40,000,000 unemployed living across the archipelago!

Yes, we don't need to be pessimistic. Especially because expensive products from multinational corporations are sold to (the tiny number of) Indonesians! Time to celebrate due to the successful work of the IMF in Indonesia!

Satish Mishra further wrote: "... The end of this journey is to turn a dictatorship into a democracy. It is to turn a patrimonial and outmoded form of cronyism into a competitive rules-based economy."

Did the IMF and multinational corporations care whether the government was run by a dictator? The most important thing for them was profit, not the fate of the country and its people! They are immoral forces!

Yes, Indonesia should change into "a competitive rules-based economy," but not by the model given by the IMF and WTO! We don't need the IMF!

We should look to Brazil as an example in solving our country's troubles. The new Brazil said good-bye to the IMF. Indonesia should say good-bye to the IMF, too!

I am sorry that I don't agree with you in being optimistic, but that doesn't mean I am pessimistic. I am simply being realistic!

IKRANAGARA, Bloomington, USA, ikranagara@mindspring.com