Indonesia today
Indonesia today
It struck me during my recent first visit to Indonesia that
many Javanese cities lack the transformation that is common in
Europe and the U.S., and which was made possible by the increase
in wealth.
Looking at the railway tracks, for example, one can see that
the Dutch did not do enough when they were in power to organize
railway transportation according to the same standard as Europe.
In fact, Indonesia was a colony from which wealth was taken and
it seems that up to now, this has retarded development of the
country.
In sociology, it is common to distinguish between technical
and social leadership, which are two quite different tasks. In
Indonesia, the question seems to be how the strong social
leadership of Soeharto, who comes from the military camp, can be
combined with the new technical leadership which is being
demanded.
In France, they said their king should be a friend of the
peasants, otherwise the bourgeoisie becomes too powerful.
However, it is from such upper classes that technical leadership
is recruited. Though affiliated with the bourgeoisie, the
military cannot provide sufficiently educated economists, etc.
If the "warrior class" wants to keep a grip on the situation,
it should realize that this is generally successful in "empires",
a kind of (enforced) confederation of rather autonomous lands. In
each autonomous area, a local bourgeoisie will emerge but this is
balanced somewhat by those of neighboring areas which seek the
interests of their lands first. If no autonomy exists, a too-
powerful upper class easily rises in the capital of the empire
and continuous conflicts may result.
Where needed, the Dutch East Indies "empire" allowed much
autonomy on the condition that taxes were paid in money or goods
from the plantations. While this tax was taken from the poor
peasants especially and caused retardation of development, the
Jakarta social leader should do better now and spare the poor
worker and support him by paying out a share of oil revenues
(with multiplier effects).
The burden must be put on the shoulders of the rich. Taxation
consists of applying the law and the law is meant to protect the
weak against the strong and cunning. The IMF cannot work within
the law and does not know about it. The IMF favors the
bourgeoisie with its free market principles.
Most Europeans that come to Indonesia today profit enormously
from the rupiah devaluation. How many of them compensate the
inflation by paying more for accommodation, transportation, etc.,
than the impoverished average Indonesian can? Instead, they
exploit in a new way.
My purpose in writing is also to get from Indonesians more
contributions for analysis of the situation. A start to this was
made by the President when he said that what the IMF wants is, in
part, contradictory to the Constitution. Just realize that the
contradiction counts for any good constitution since the law (to
protect the weaker) must prevail above the power of money.
JITSE KEIZER
Amsterdam, the Netherlands