'Nobody is happy with Mega, that's good democracy'

'Nobody is happy with Mega, that's good democracy'

JP/3/INSIGHT

Yuji Suzuki, one of most renowned Japanese experts on
Indonesian politics, is scheduled to speak at two seminars
dealing with bilateral relations between Japan and
Indonesia/ASEAN in Jakarta on Wednesday and Thursday. The
professor of politics at Hosei University talked with The Jakarta
Post's Kornelius Purba about the current Indonesian situation.

Question: Indonesia has decided to finish its program with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and hopes that Japan will
replace that funding to assist Indonesia. Do you think it is
feasible?

Answer : My first impression about the current discussion in
Indonesia about her graduation from the IMF, is that actually
this is not a graduation from the IMF program. The IMF is simply
allowing Indonesia to graduate, terminating its scheme, and the
IMF can no longer justify investment and assistance to Indonesia.
I found that Indonesia is reaching such a state of affairs that
the country just needs to work more on her own in this very much
globalized era.

It is important insurance for Indonesia to negotiate on a
bilateral basis with major donors like Japan, the United States
and many other donor countries, to follow the IMF framework for
the benefit of Indonesia's balanced economic development. Now
without the IMF umbrella, Indonesia needs to negotiate
bilaterally for its own interests and benefits.

How about Indonesia's position among foreign donors and
investors?

In the middle of the recovery after the economic crisis in
1997, Indonesia started to lose attractiveness as far as the
private sector was concerned, along with its official donors. On
the other hand, China started to attract more and more private
sector investment over Indonesia. It also started to attract more
lending from donor countries. And as the best student of IMF for
such a long period, today Indonesia no longer appeals in that
manner. Instead Indonesia began to earn a kind of image that it
is not doing what it should do in a way that meets international
expectations.

After the IMF's exit some might argue that the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) should play a supplementing role, but I
think what is more important is that the Indonesian government
itself must come up with a concrete plan and a long-term vision
to attract more investors.

As the largest lender to Indonesia, is Japan capable and
willing to help Indonesia after the IMF, in light of the pledge
by Prime Minister Koizumi to Megawati during their recent
meeting?

I think yes. My answer is very clear: Indonesia is too
important to be allowed to just go bankrupt, not from just a
market standpoint or as place for resources, but more
strategically, I think ASEAN in the last 36 years played a very
significant role as a stabilizer of regional conflict... ASEAN
needs Indonesian leadership which used to play a very significant
role in encouraging market economy in the last four decades such
that the whole region became prosperous and developed. Japan
cannot do much without Indonesia. Now, with or without the IMF,
Japan needs to work together with Indonesia.

On Wednesday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri commemorated
the 2nd anniversary of her presidency. How do you perceive her
leadership and achievements?

I don't think we can criticize the slowness, the
incompleteness of Megawati's government, simply because we, in
Japan, have also suffered for the past 10 years with the threat
of insolvency of our banking system. The reforms of the
administration, which had been discussed for nearly two decades,
we've never implemented, and there are other types of reforms
that we've not implemented. In this case we cannot blame the
Indonesian government in many areas. But from a mid-term
perspective, please look at what Megawati's government has
achieved.

First, there are incredible problems that this government
inherited from the previous governments. But now there is
stability without denying democratic participation. So anybody
can criticize anybody else. Nobody is happy with Megawati's
administration, and everybody is criticizing her. This is an
incredible development of democracy in this country. Look at the
TV, newspapers, they indeed report what they feel right and they
compete with each other. There is incredible competition and
freedom of expression that never was the case before here.

However, we can see -- to a certain extent -- a return of the
systems of the Old Order and the New Order or a mixture of the
two systems. We see signs of authoritarianism, yes, but
nonetheless, Megawati has not destroyed democracy. In that sense
stability can be maintained with a 'democratic flavor'.

Secondly, there is economic instability, which her government
inherited from Soeharto's downfall. But now there are signals
that the rupiah is strong enough. Now the country has US$33
billion in foreign reserves. One can express any criticism, but
yet there is a lot of money in foreign reserves.

Third, there is also a sense of political stability to attract
more fundamental, or what we call as infrastructure building --
the so called privatization -- in which there is no longer 100
percent government responsibility. Now the government can share
the responsibility with the private sector.

The country is also coping with graduation from the donor
system. People are asking for berdikari (self-reliance) in the
economy, which is totally different from the previous mentality.
People now are willing to take up the challenges at their own
cost. This is something new.

For such a long time the Indonesian government was very much
optimistic about, for instance, international institutions being
always ready to help, because Indonesia is just too big for
everybody to lose. Yet, within this process Indonesia has started
to take the risks on her own.

How about the presidential system here?

Now the government is very much dependent on who will be the
president. This country is too big to rely only on one person.
Now it is time for Indonesia to have a strong state with 'weak'
leader.

I think the achievement of Megawati's government is to allow a
popular election, perhaps not only at a national level, but also
hopefully at the local levels, like governors or mayors. You will
see, of course, an incredible expansion of corruption. Yet it is
the problem all other countries go through too. Japan has also
had a tremendous history of corruption. Distributors of money
always became the political leaders. It is still very difficult
to fight against corruption, but gradually it has started to be
checked by the participation of the civil society.