Mar'ie warns East Asian of being complacent

Mar'ie warns East Asian of being complacent

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad
yesterday warned East Asian countries, which the World Bank has
called the economic miracle, against being complacent and
overconfident.

"We should learn from the mistakes of several great nations
which declined after making great achievements," Mar'ie said in a
lecture at the Universiti Kebangsaan in Kuala Lumpur.

Mar'ie stopped short of explicitly blaming the currency
turbulence hitting East Asia since early last month on
complacency and overconfidence.

But the mistakes, which Mar'ie said had been made by Egypt,
the Roman empire and Greece in the before-Christ period and
Argentine before World War I, had been cited by many analysts as
being largely responsible for the currency upheaval in several
East Asian countries.

"Another major mistake made by those once great nations was
that their great success lured them to build prestigious
projects, resulting in excess spending," he said.

Those nations, he said, had also failed to adjust to new
realities and environments and consequently had not realized they
had been left behind by other emerging nations.

"Moreover, their leaders had ignored the fulfillment of the
basic needs of the people," Mar'ie said in his lecture titled
"Development of what and for whom".

A copy of the speech was made available here yesterday.

He did not discuss in detail the currency crisis ravaging
several East Asian countries, arguing the financial upheaval did
not reflect the sound fundamentals of the countries being
attacked by speculators.

But Mar'ie conceded "we must live with the reality that the
characteristics of the financial market is now entering a
volatile situation".

During his two-day visit to Malaysia starting on Sunday,
Mar'ie also met with Prime Minister Mahathir Muhamad and Deputy
Prime Minister/Minister of Finance Anwar Ibrahim.

He elaborated on the painful adjustments which have to made to
remain competitive and survive in the accelerated globalization
process.

"We are now living in a world which is full not only of
uncertainty and spiritual insecurity but also enigma," Mar'ie
said.

He said despite the fierce competition among nations today,
development could not be made value-free if "we are serious about
steadily improving the dignity and material and spiritual welfare
of mankind".

Mar'ie said economic development thinkers had increasingly
included ethics and morality into the development concept.

"Ethics and morality have now become so imperative in the
development process that such prestigious higher learning
institutions as America's Harvard University have included the
moral consequences of economic growth in its curricula," he said.

He said economic development has to be market-friendly and
market-driven, but this should not mean the government's role
should be completely abandoned.

"We need the government as an objective referee which is
impartial in enforcing the rules of the game in the market, in
creating a level-playing field."

Mar'ie said the government is also needed to play a leading
role in the development of human resources, physical
infrastructure and soft infrastructure (laws) and in protecting
the environment. (vin)