Repeated warnings

Repeated warnings

Three statements, made by three different sources on the same
day, Thursday, deserve our attention. During a seminar, the
statement was made that in order to become one of the world's
new industrial giants by the year 2020 Indonesia needs a good and
clean government, a comprehensive policy, and a 9 percent to 10
percent industrial growth rate in manufacturing.

The second statement was made by economic guru Sumitro
Djojohadikusumo. He said that to shed our dependence on foreign
loans the government must eliminate the economic distortions and
increase efficiency in the use of our national savings.

The third statement came from Prof. Dr. Anwar Nasution, a
financial expert recently appointed professor of the economics of
development at the University of Indonesia's School of Economics.
He said the sluggishness of our deregulation efforts and the
occurrence of errors in the phasing of those efforts have caused
complications in the form of, among other things, a heating up of
the economy and the emergence of businessmen who are increasingly
immune to those deregulation efforts.

This week, this republic will be 50 years old. As we celebrate
the 50th year of our independence, we must not only look back on
the past, but also ahead so that we will recognize that the
challenges that lie before us are immense. Unless all those
problems are tackled, we are afraid that our future economy will
show a degree of effectiveness that gives little reason for joy.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta