Kwik responds to criticism

On Aug. 26, 2000, The Jakarta Post ran an interview with Tony Prasetyantono titled New Cabinet a wasted opportunity for Gus Dur. In the interview, he made some statements which are wrong. There is not one member in the Cabinet who is a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan). Bungaran Saragih is not a member of the party. He once gave a lecture on the development of PDI Perjuangan. In certain cases he was even hostile to the party, especially when it was being oppressed by the Soeharto regime.

Another disturbing thing in his interview is his judgment that I do not understand macroeconomics. While I do not want to argue about whether I am knowledgeable about macroeconomics or not, I must ask on what he based this judgment? Wouldn't it have been proper for Tony to at least have called Erasmus University for information about my studies? How does he know I never updated my knowledge of macroeconomics after I graduated? This question is also valid for other economists and economic observers who said I was not knowledgeable about macroeconomics.

Tony also said: "I think Kwik's weakness was his limited understanding of macroeconomics and his inability to say no." How does he know that? Does he know what I said to former president Habibie when he asked me to serve in his Cabinet? Was he present at the numerous meetings with Abdurrahman Wahid, and was he present at the debates with the IMF negotiating team on the import duties on rice and sugar, on the recapitalization of banks, etc.? Is he bright enough to understand the subtlety of my resignation letter dated Aug. 10, 2000?

The chapter in the letter of intent on "The Macroeconomic Framework" was composed by the macroeconomists of the IMF and the Indonesian macroeconomists at the Ministry of Finance and the deputies to the coordinating minister, Prof. Arsyad Anwar and Komara Djaja. Suppose my knowledge of macroeconomics is zero, what is the relevance for the formulation of macroeconomic policies if the architects are outstanding macroeconomists like Prof. Arsyad Anwar, Komara Djaja and macroeconomists from the World Bank and the IMF?

They are not as well known as Mr. Tony Prasetyantono, because they are not (using the terminology of Dr. Paul Krugman) "airport economists". They are real economists, like so many Nobel laureates whose names are less known than airport economists.

Tony Prasetyantono, as with so many observers, says things in the media that are completely baseless. Tony Prasetyantono also has the tendency to be erratic. On April 11, when the Indonesian delegation in Paris was about to start the Paris Club meeting to reschedule Indonesia's public debt, he told Kompas there were signs the Paris Club would not reschedule US$2.1 billion in debt due in the fiscal year 2000. The following day, the Paris Club agreed to reschedule the debt. On the same day, Tony said again in Kompas this was not an achievement. On the contrary, he said, the Indonesian delegation had created a time bomb for future generations, as payments due in 2000, 2001 and the first quarter of 2002 had been rescheduled until 20 years from the date.

I feel very sorry prestigious newspapers like The Jakarta Post and Kompas provide space for false and misleading comments by so many observers. However, I was advised by a close friend who is an intellectual of the highest caliber, saying I should understand people deserve leaders of the same quality as themselves. He said: Bangsa tempe hanya berhak mendapatkan pemimpin yang tempe, karena pemimpin yang bukan tempe minggir (an inferior nation only deserves to have leaders of inferior quality, because the leaders of noninferior quality step aside). I remember an outstanding economist said many years ago that bad money always drives out good money.

KWIK KIAN GIE

Jakarta