Favor-seeking entrepreneurs

Favor-seeking entrepreneurs

As President Abdurrahman Wahid has told us, many
businesspeople come to him asking for favors, i.e. government
projects. Those people lack the creativity and the capacity to
start their own undertakings.

But why come to the President? Perhaps it is because they
regard Abdurrahman's government as identical to the New Order
regime, under which many government projects were given to
cronies of Soeharto through corruption, collusion and nepotism.
Government projects have always appealed to businesspeople
because they provide secure captive markets. That is to say, hard
work is not needed and there is no fear of competition.

Obviously, this is cause for concern. While the government is
trying to transform our economic institutions and implant in
them a new vision, a corrupt mentality is still present in some
of our businesspeople who are unprepared to live in the new
millennium.

In this era of reform, with its emphasis on the eradication of
corruption, collusion and nepotism in all areas of life, our
businesspeople are expected to be able to become the driving
force of development. Building a nation alludes not only to the
development of its identity by molding norms, it also means
boosting the nation's creativity and education as an investment
in proper human resources development.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta