Economic doyen Sadli turns 80
Economic doyen Sadli turns 80
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Only a few people in Indonesia could launch a book on their
80th birthday. Economist Mohammad Sadli, who turned 80 on Monday,
is one of those few.
The book, Mohammad Sadli's 80th Birthday: the Indonesian
Economy in the Era of New Politics, a collection of articles
written by 38 people of different backgrounds, was launched at
his birthday celebration at Bentara Budaya, Palmerah, Central
Jakarta.
Many prominent people flocked to Bentara Budaya. Most were his
colleagues from the School of Economics at the University of
Indonesia (UI), to which Sadli has long been attached as a
lecturer.
They included educators and former ministers Fuad Hassan and
Juwono Sudarsono as well as noted economist Sjahrir.
Other guests included economists Widjojo Nitisastro, Ali
Wardhana and Emil Salim. Together with Sadli, they are often
referred to as the "Berkeley Mafia" as they all attended
University of California in Berkeley and it is they who designed
the New Order economy.
Intellectual Nono Anwar Makarim has an interesting account on
Sadli's role in the "Berkeley Mafia" from one informal meeting at
Emil's home.
"Ali Wardhana wore sandals, and he still looked like a
fighter. Emil Salim illuminated the discussion with his charming
smile. But there was one person whom all the economists listened
to carefully when he spoke.
"I concluded that he was a capo di tutti capi, a primus inter
pares within the mafia community. This man was short, his head
was round, his hair was sparse and his voice was sharp. I later
learned that he was Mohammad Sadli," recalled Makarim in the
book, which was launched on Monday.
Born in Sumedang on June 10, 1922, Sadli obtained a very
distinguished education, which definitely contributed much to his
success in the years after.
Sadli graduated from the prestigious Hogere Burgerschool (HBS)
senior high school in Semarang during Dutch colonial times.
He left Semarang for Bandung, where he continued his studies
at Technische Hogerschool, now the Bandung Institute of
Technology (ITB), of which first Indonesian president Sukarno was
also an alumnus.
However, before he could get a degree from ITB, Japanese
troops stormed the country and created upheaval here. Sadli moved
to Yogyakarta and pursued an engineering degree from Gadjah Mada
University (UGM).
Soon after he obtained his degree from UGM in 1952, he was
invited by Soemitro Djojohadikusumo to teach at the School of
Economics at the University of Indonesia.
Soemitro might have heard of Sadli's interest in economics,
economist Thee Kian Wee once recalled.
In the same year, in 1952, he was invited to join the Harvard
Summer Program at Harvard University.
Two years later, he obtained his master's degree in economics
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He went to the University of California in Berkeley in 1957 to
pursue a postgraduate fellowship.
When he went home in 1957, he started his career as a lecturer
at the University of Indonesia, from which he finally obtained a
doctoral degree in November of the same year with his
dissertation titled Aspect of Interregional Industrial
Development with Special Reference to Indonesia.
In 1963, Sadli again went abroad to be a visiting fellow at
Harvard University.
When he returned to Indonesia a year later, his capitalist-
inclined School of Economics was under heavy pressure from left-
wing activists, linked to the rising Indonesian Communist Party
(PKI).
During such a critical time, Sadli and his colleagues at the
university were fortunate that they were supported by military
men.
The military even invited Sadli and his colleagues to teach
economics at the Army Staff and Command School (Seskoad).
Through Seskoad, Sadli and his economist colleagues played an
important role in designing a blueprint to lift Indonesia's
economy away from bankruptcy.
Sadli's prominent role in the early period of the New Order
administration was his efforts in promoting the importance of
inviting foreign capital, including debts, according to Widjojo.
"Sadli shaped people's minds. He talked about the importance
of obtaining capital and investment from foreign countries,
including the badly needed debts by the Indonesian economy. At
that time, talking about debt was taboo in Indonesian politics,"
Widjojo said during Sadli's 80th birthday celebration.
His landmark achievement attracted the attention of then
president Soeharto, and he was mandated by Soeharto to hold key
Cabinet posts, first as the minister of manpower from 1971 to
1973 and then minister of mining from 1973 to 1978.
Retiring from the bureaucracy, Sadli became a productive
writer, whose articles often appeared in several influential
newspapers and magazines.
"Pressure from outside is badly needed to prevent
mismanagement by the government of the day," said Sadli in one of
his books, reflecting the style of his columns.