'Don't repeat old habits after IMF cure'

'Don't repeat old habits after IMF cure'

The government has resorted to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) to help it through the currency crisis. Communications
expert Wimar Witoelar says that realizing one's sickness is
already half the cure.

JAKARTA (JP): There is no relationship between IMF and the
inter-galactic trouble-shooting elite cops portrayed in the
blockbuster movie Men in Black starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will
Smith. But both conjure up images of expertise, mystery and above
all ruthless effectiveness.

According to an Indonesian public opinion poll from the last
few days, people are trembling over the specter of the IMF coming
in to help extract Indonesia from its financial mess.

Dennis de Tray, head of the World Bank mission in Jakarta,
actually does not agree that the country is facing a financial
crisis, suggesting that "confidence crisis" is a better
description. Whatever.

Problems, they say, come by the dozen. Indonesia is facing a
crisis period. In fact, the worst in 30 years.

Many economists compare the IMF to a doctor. Some say that the
IMF is a tough and uncompassionate doctor. Rizal Ramli says:
"They are not saviors, but come to amputate our limbs."

Christianto Wibisono, however, says that when somebody is
really sick, one should stop all bad habits like smoking and junk
food addiction. And if you cannot help yourself with home cures,
you have to call the doctor and do as the doctor says.

Indonesia's problems may be situational -- caused by financial
speculation and withdrawal of funds from loan and currency
markets. But they come in a setting of chronic inefficiency,
corruption, collusion, nepotism, protectionism, cronyism, and
above all the arrogance of power.

Economist Faisal Basri feels it is not yet time to call the
IMF. We still have one more trump card left, he says. "Have the
national leadership reform our system." Sure.

That is like the person in Chicago who did an appendectomy on
himself. There are many opinions and second opinions, but in any
case de Tray is right. We are facing a crisis of confidence in
our financial leaders, who in this country are also the economic
and political leaders.

We should not worry about issues like national sovereignty, or
heaven forbid, pride. When the doctor comes, he or she does not
care too much about your lifestyle, except where it has impact on
your health.

The IMF could not care less why we have a permissive society
which allows corruption. They just want the corruption stopped so
we can regain our financial health. They cannot do their job
unless we take medication and find the discipline to change our
bad habits.

Reform has been slow in coming to Indonesia, and it is a fact
of life that prosperity coupled with absolute authority has in
fact delayed social reform in this country. This in turn has not
been good for economic fundamentals.

When the power elite equates dissent with disruption,
democracy gets sidelined.

When stability is interpreted as the suppression of
initiative, business growth gets more and more centered and we
get a situation of total surrender to a paternalistic system.

The crunch comes when the center loses its perspective because
of total submissions made by the nation's political and economic
players.

When prominent businessman William Soeryadjaya was forced out
of his Astra International Corporation, the noted analyst Hartojo
Wignyowiyoto said: "there cannot be two suns in the Indonesian
sky", referring to the notion that William never made himself
dependent on the power elite.

The fact is, Indonesian businesses have become beneficiaries
of government largesse -- decreasing their value in the deal.
Growing both in the private sector as well as the public sector,
they were spoonfed by government protection, subsidies and
collusive arrangements at the cost of national productivity.

It is easy to see how we came to a situation in which massive
wealth accumulation has been matched with a decrease in
production.

The announcements that "our economic fundamentals are good"
became whistling in the dark and eventually were ignored by
financial speculators who bet correctly against the rupiah --
winning them the biggest game in town.

And this is all because we would not face reality like the
forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, of which we were unaware
of until Garuda 152 crashed and the smoke seeped into the skies
of Jakarta a few hundred meters above our lungs. Now we have
Malaysian fire-fighters fighting our fires and the Men in Black
fighting for our rupiah.

The real issue of the IMF presence is not what Rizal, Chris,
Faisal, de Tray or I think, but that the government feels it is
time to call them.

When the government, for all its firm actions such as refusing
jet fighters from the U.S., stubbornly defending wasteful
national projects, and curtailing individual expression, calls
for the intervention of the IMF "Men in Black" from the bastions
of democracy and capitalism, then it means they know they are
really sick.

And that is what matters. Half the cure comes in realizing the
problem. It is better to call the IMF than, like Malaysia, to
blame financier George Soros and threaten to isolate the
country's currency from foreign speculators. The result only sent
the ringgit sliding further down against the dollar.

This time our leaders are more sensible. Rather than ranting
and raving they call in the IMF and let the experts do the job.

Remember, the doctors are coming because we called them. And
now we must let them do their work, pay our bills someday and
refrain from going back to old habits.

This may be the only way to reform our country's corrupt power
structure and return confidence to our people.