Shanghai APEC

The Asia-Pacific rim countries meet every year to discuss their economic woes, in particular how to promote international trade by removing artificial, mostly government made, barriers. The objective of the entry of the People's Republic of China into the World Trade Organization is to facilitate the flow of trade between APEC members.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York has suddenly created a rift within the ranks of the APEC community, more so since the role of religion has now come into play as well.

The ideals of APEC, originally aimed at spreading prosperity evenly among the nations of the world, in practice only make the rich nations richer and the developing nations poorer, according to critics.

Now it seems that a tougher spirit of competition and international mistrust following the September tragedy will lead to the mightier nations getting more powerful. The weaker nations, on the other hand, get more confused and disillusioned. They have to accept handouts as they were.

Government subsidies were meant to be removed or minimized to create a fair international trade exchange mechanism. Subsidies were seen in the APEC spirit as foul play deserving "a red card". However, the U.S. government has now to support airline companies through massive subsidies if they are to be prevented from bankruptcy due to dwindling revenues from ticket sales.

As for Indonesia, fortunately, Megawati has ensured that the U.S. and Japan are to keep their pledges to assist Indonesia's economic recovery whatever happens. Hopefully, the "opposition leaders" will be happy with the results of Mega's "impossible mission" to Shanghai.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta