Down to earth solutions needed

Down to earth solutions needed

One of Mr. Kwik Kian Gie's concerns over foreign exchange
control ("Insight," Sept. 22, 1998) is the level and conduct of
the bureaucracy needed to make it happen.

Obviously Mr. Kwik has never had to wander through the offices
of the Ministry of Finance in Lapangan Banteng, or visit BKPM
trying to meet an official, or battle through the dirt and
cigarette smoke of an immigration office, register his car, renew
his driver's license or visit his local tax service center. If he
had done any of these things, he would quickly realize that there
is a massive underutilized bureaucracy out there, just waiting
for the challenge of exchange controls to give them a useful
day's work. Although Mr. Kwik states that expanding the
bureaucracy will lead to corrupt practices, I disagree. The vast
majority of the people working for the government are honest and
hard working. In many cases they lack resources. The extra levies
are simply to supplement meaningless salaries. This is very
different from corruption.

Mr. Kwik is also concerned that importers would overprice
their imports in order to sneak foreign currency offshore. This
may be true, but could be controlled again by reintroducing the
very successful SGS pre-shipment inspections. In any event, the
additional customs and tax revenues collected from such over-
pricing would benefit the Indonesian economy.

Finally, like many private citizens, Mr. Kwik is concerned
that he may be unable to legally obtain foreign currency for
medical attention or vacations or schooling overseas. Well I'm
sorry Mr. Kwik, but this means sharing the pain that has been
forced on 98 percent of your fellow citizens with the open market
economy promoted by economists and the intellectuals of the IMF.

W.C. Fields said "I've had many problems in my life, most of
them never happened." Let's hear some practical solutions from
scholars such as Mr. Kwik, not theoretical problems.

JOHN SLACK

Jakarta