Reality contradicts President's state address

Reality contradicts President's state address

President B.J. Habibie set out his political and economic
policies in his first state of the nation address on Aug. 15.
Economist Kwik Kian Gie expresses his skepticism about their
implementation.

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie's state address on Aug.
15 was well received. It was comprehensive, systematic and
logical. But whether it reflects reality and whether he has the
intention or power to implement the concept are very different
questions.

It is very likely there will be a big deviation between his
speech and what he will accomplish.

In its substance, Habibie's speech was similar to those of his
predecessor, Soeharto. All Soeharto's prepared speeches were very
pleasant to listen to, but what he did was always different from
what he had said he would do.

Habibie, for example, said: "International trust and support
(for Indonesia) are currently very strong. In history, we have
never accepted as large an amount of foreign aid as we will do
this year."

However, high-ranking officials from donor countries have told
me that they were merely taking pity on Indonesians who were
facing the threat of hunger and the possible downfall of their
government.

Habibie condemned sexual harassment against women, especially
violence against the ethnic Chinese. But a large number of
government officials have doubted the existence of such
harassment and no single rapist has been arrested.

While a cabinet minister said that looting was tolerable as
long as the looted goods were worth no more than 5 percent of the
assets, Habibie said: "As a civilized nation with religious
faith, we condemn such an uncivilized deed ... I am demanding
support from the House of Representatives for strict measures
that law enforcers will take against looters."

In reality, the number of looters arrested has been tiny.
Residents of housing complexes as well as owners of plantations
and shrimp ponds have to pay large sums of money to commercial
security guards if they want their assets to be protected from
looters.

Habibie also said that the legal system would be reformed and
developed to make laws powerful. However, law enforcers view the
conflicts involving the Indonesian Democratic Party, one of the
essential pillars of the country's politics, as internal matters
that cannot be resolved by recourse to law.

Furthermore, laws have never been implemented against
untouchable elite officials. The murderers of journalist Fuad M.
Syafruddin (Udin) and labor activist Marsinah, and the killers of
four Trisakti University students, therefore, have not been
discovered.

If Habibie said that political reform was aimed at creating
clean and powerful governance, how about corrupt officials who
are still active?

The President also talked about the eradication of corruption,
collusion, cronyism and nepotism. But which officials will carry
out such an eradication program if the result will affect
themselves?

So, Habibie's speech can be accomplished only if the President
himself is historically clean from corruption, collusion,
cronyism and nepotism, very honest, charismatic, loved by the
people, and has high integrity. Only such a president can recruit
clean people as his assistants and dismiss corrupt officials.

The President also expressed his pride in the success of the
state-owned PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) to
create the C-250 aircraft, which he claimed was designed and
engineered by Indonesians.

In reality, according to IPTN executives, the company has
hired about 100 foreign engineers who are told to hide whenever
the firm receives guests. Moreover, Indonesian mastery of
sophisticated aircraft technology has had no trickle-down effect
to the other industries. As a result, the country's manufacturing
industry depends too much on imports and agriculture is not
supported by adequate technology.

The President also promised more transparency but IPTN's
financial reports have never been transparent. If Habibie, when
he was state minister of research and technology and president of
IPTN, said that the then president Soeharto had told him not to
release the company's financial reports, why can he not do so
now?

Also, why does the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency never
disclose the audited financial reports of ailing banks?

In his economic program, Habibie continue to base his policies
on the government's reform agreement with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). That means that Indonesia's economic
development will continue to depend largely on the inflow of
foreign capital.

We must realize that in the last 32 years, our economy has
been very fragile because we have developed it on the basis of
footloose foreign capital, which is like the wind, not on
domestic savings, which are like a solid substance.

The evidence shows that Indonesia's corporate debt has now
reached US$80 billion and official debt totals $53 billion. The
official foreign debt will increase by $14 billion when the
government receives the disbursement of loans from the IMF and
the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) by the end of this
fiscal year.

When the bankruptcy law comes into effect in the near future,
the assets of debt-ridden companies will soon move to the hands
of foreign creditors.

The economy has also worsened by the injection of some Rp 170
trillion ($13 billion) in printed money into 60 ailing banks.

So, how can we restore the confidence of foreign investors?

Another alternative is that we can rebuild the economy with
our own human and natural resources. How can we do this? As
Confucius said, a prosperous nation needs three prerequisites --
good leaders, food and weapons. Of the three, good leaders are
the most essential element for a nation to become prosperous.
Who are those leaders?