Word: indonesia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Amok"--literally, "to go berserk" in the Malay tongue that is spoken across Indonesia--is precisely what the outside world has feared for Jakarta ever since it was hit by a currency crisis late last year that the aging President Suharto, 76, seemed unable to understand or to control. Suharto, in power for 32 years, refused to implement key economic reforms that could damage the private business interests of his family members and close friends, even as food prices spiraled. The fatal shooting of six students by police in the capital last Tuesday sparked riots and looting. "Indonesia needs...
...Indonesia's economy has taken a hard fall, and no level of society has escaped the pain. The population of more than 200 million people has seen per capita income drop from $1,200 to $300 almost overnight. Tinted-glass towers in the business district of what was last year one of Asia's hottest cities for investors now stand virtually empty. Corporations have no way of repaying the $70 billion they borrowed from foreign banks, and much business has simply ceased. At the other end of the economic scale, poor households have no way of paying the escalating prices...
...demand. "I have never done anything like this before," said Sali, a 27-year-old man who had just taken a television from an electronics store in Jakarta's Tanah Abang district. "But we can't afford to buy anything anymore." The precedents were not good--the last time Indonesia went amok was in 1965: half a million people were killed after an abortive communist coup then-President Sukarno could not control. Suharto used the turmoil to maneuver himself into the leadership...
...testament to the nature of power in Indonesia that the country must again be brought to the brink of disaster before leadership can be transferred. There is little argument that Suharto's rule is coming to an end. Said Amien Rais, a key opposition figure who heads the powerful Muhammadiyah Muslim organization: "The only way to stop this move toward anarchy is for Suharto to step down...
Derivatives are a kind of nuclear financial instrument. They are powerful and highly complicated agreements designed to offset certain financial risks. Under steady conditions they work well. But in derivatives, like nuclear mishaps, there are no small accidents. And as the Asian economic crisis worsens--and in Indonesia's case nears catastrophe--the financial Geiger counters are beginning to buzz...