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