IMF a cold-blooded strangler

IMF a cold-blooded strangler

From Pikiran Rakyat

I would like to refer to a report in Pikiran Rakyat, dated
Feb. 6, 2001 entitled IMF worried about Indonesia's increasingly
inflated debts. Commenting on it, Rizal Ramli stated that
Indonesia had to limit our foreign loans, including those signed
by our regional governments now under regional autonomy policy,
because they were afraid that we will not be able to pay up.

Is it true that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants us
to limit our foreign loans because they are afraid that we will
not be able to pay up? Or, was the IMF only courteous, because
they indeed have a political interest? And how do Muslims get rid
of their foreign loan trap?

The IMF is a body which has the authority to supervise lending
countries that are unable to settle their debts. The IMF
functions as the financial police for creditor countries, and
ignores the one country one vote system. In the IMF, the strength
of a country's vote is determined by the strength of its economy
and paid capital.

Developing countries like Indonesia must obey the IMF. It is
the IMF which demanded that the government cut the granting of
subsidies for fuel, electricity, and others, which are clearly
needed very much by the people.

Therefore the IMF is a cold-blooded strangler. We have
witnessed so much suffering caused by the IMF and the obedience
of authorities to capitalistic countries that are led by the
United States of America (USA) through their international
institutions.

Will Muslims not learn from the greediness of the USA and
other capitalistic countries that are never satisfied with
dominating Islamic countries rich in natural sources, and then
snare us with their foreign loans?

Muslims should observe how the USA and capitalistic countries
through the IMF and their World Bank press and force us in their
interests and ideologies by relating their foreign loans to the
issues of human rights, democracy, transparency, reform, the
environment, labor etc. which actually have nothing to do with
foreign loans.

DEWI

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