IMF the best doctor at present

IMF the best doctor at present

From Media Indonesia

It is necessary for us to pay special attention to Media Indonesia's editorial on March 7, 1998 titled Between a quack doctor and a doctor, which was written in the same vein as an article appearing in The Sunday Times and reprinted in Kompas on Feb. 16, 1998 titled The West begins "to be involved" in Asian crisis. I wish to underline the statement made by Prof. Kenichi Ohno, an economist who graduated from Stanford University and who spent four years working for the IMF, "that Asia's economic crisis stems from systems and that the first thing to do before implementing a long-term solution to this problem is to keep the market psychologically calm".

In connection with Ohno's statement, we Indonesians, perhaps, must continue to keep the IMF as our "doctor" and willingly swallow the 50 bitter pills it has offered for our economic recovery. It means that, as suggested by Frans Seda, we "need not change our doctor", and that it would be better for us to keep in a safe place the CBS pill offered by Steve H. Hanke. Otherwise, we may suffer drug poisoning before the illness is cured.

Well, being "an outpatient", we must continue to keep the market psychologically calm. Perhaps a political breakthrough (for the short term) brought about by the President will be an effective means to achieve the psychological calmness of the market as meant by Prof. Ohno. Who knows, this breakthrough may be the establishment of a strong cabinet. The most important thing is that the new cabinet must be capable and have vision. So, one must nurture one's own acquiescence and throw away personal or group interests for the sake of achieving national objectives.

JASWANDI SALIM

Jakarta