Parties' economic programs lacking detail: Economists

Parties' economic programs lacking detail: Economists

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta post, Jakarta

While most political parties are united in condemning the
government for failing to set out an economic program that can
get the nation out of crisis, most of them have failed to offer
any alternative.

Respected economists Faisal Basri and Chatib Basri agreed that
the economic platforms laid out by most of the 24 parties
contesting the elections were only good on paper, but lack
details on how to achieve the goals.

"It's sad to see that amid consensus that our economy is in
trouble, most parties, if not all, have so far failed to come up
with a sound and applicable economic program," Faisal said.

Chatib explained that this may be due to the fact that the
country was still in early stages of democracy, where program-
oriented campaigning is still new and parties have yet to realize
the importance of a sound economic platform in luring followers.

"They don't find economic programs saleable," Chatib said.

On Saturday, parties will enter the second week of the
campaign period which will end on April 1.

In the first week of the campaigns, only a small number of
parties offered a "fairly workable" economic agenda. They include
the New Indonesia Alliance Party (PPIB), National Mandate Party
(PAN) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

PAN has shown its seriousness in economic matters by placing
economists, including top banking analyst Dradjad Wibowo, on its
list of legislative candidates.

Meanwhile, a PKS campaigner, who in the past week kept
criticizing the current government's economic program, repeatedly
stressed the need to improve the country's industrial
competitiveness and to maintain sustainable macroeconomic
stability.

PAN and PKS promised to streamline the bureaucracy, provide
various facilities for businesses, including tax incentives, and
provide better legal certainty and security. These are all areas
in which the current government has failed to perform.

PPIB, chaired by noted economist Sjahrir, has also shown a
deep interest in economic issues.

Before establishing the party last year, Sjahrir led a
prominent economic think tank, PIB, which in 2001, formulated a
nine-chapter draft on economic recovery which was then proposed
to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to become a decree.
The MPR rejected the proposal, but PPIB now uses the proposal as
its economic platform.

The proposal outlines a list of actions to remedy problems in
all sectors of the economy and state institutions. The actions
include those aimed at improving the business and investment
climate and tackling domestic and foreign debts. These will boost
investment, generate higher growth and ease unemployment.