Experience is the best teacher

Experience is the best teacher

From Gatra

The economy in the Sukarno era was devastated simply because Bung Karno was excessively involved in politics. Now, I would like to call on President Abdurrahman Wahid not to repeat Sukarno's mistake, including not insisting on lifting the ban on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and communist teachings. The people are against the revival of communism in the country.

In the 1970's, after the fall of Bung Karno, former president Soeharto commenced the nation's development. At that time an engineer named Ciputra produced the concept for Taman Impian Jaya Ancol (Victorious Ancol Dream Land). Poey Sin Kian, alias Syukur Pujiadi, built Jayakarta Hotel. They both received the support of Ali Sadikin, then the Jakarta governor.

Another entrepreneur, William Soeryadjaya, built a Toyota assembly plant. All these entrepreneurs deserve our appreciation for their pioneering activities. Unfortunately, the magnanimous development brought about malpractice because of lack of control and supervision.

While former president Soeharto also made serious mistakes, establishing a number of foundations which were used to rake in funds collected from businesspeople who were granted development credits. As time went on, Soeharto, his family and cronies became fantastically wealthy, and many of the businesspeople were dishonest in running their businesses. This is evident as many of them later fled Indonesia, taking their easily earned money and investing abroad. They also changed citizenship to avoid being sued.

Therefore, President Abdurrahman Wahid must learn from the experiences of the previous administrations.

HAJI G. MALIKMASS

Jakarta