Word: suharto
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...addition to freewheeling Pertamina, the army is involved in virtually every part of Indonesia's economy-usually less out of greed than sheer need. Under President Suharto's austerity budget, armed forces units are required to provide between 25% and 40% of their own support. To raise funds, the army recently announced plans to commercialize engineering and transport-in effect, hiring itself out as an Indonesian version of Hertz Rent A Car. Some other examples of military business enterprise...
Long-Run Dangers. Suharto, a military man himself, has repeatedly ordered an end to many of these practices. "All illegal collections, regardless of purpose, should be stopped," he said late in 1969. "Such collections may look profitable in the short term, but in the long term they undermine our national economy." Beyond demoralizing Indonesians who had hoped for a new order, the military's highhanded role has discouraged foreign investors...
...anyone would want the impoverished, California-size region nearly defies understanding. Indeed, the government of Indonesia's President Suharto, who commanded the forces ordered to "liberate" West Irian from Dutch control in 1962, long ago lost any real enthusiasm for the remote and unrewarding territory. But Indonesia's sense of Manifest Destiny was involved. For decades, Indonesians have always rallied to the cry "From Sabang to Merauke!" -from the westernmost island of the 3,000-island archipelago to the easternmost hamlet in West Irian. Said Frans Kaisieppo, the governor of West Irian: "It has become a religious conviction...
Nixon became the first U.S. President to visit Indonesia, the sprawling island chain whose 112 million people make up nearly half the population of Southeast Asia. Indonesians gave him credit for not trying to upset their neutral status, re-established by General Suharto once the mercurial Sukarno was overthrown in 1967. Nixon wants the U.S. to participate in Indonesia's economic development, but he did not urge any shift in foreign policy. "We respect you as a proud and independent nation," he said in Djakarta. "It is on the basis of common values and ideals...
Perhaps most serious of all is the fact that communications between Djakarta and the outer islands of the huge archipelago barely exist. "At the moment," says Sadli, "Indonesia is not an integrated economic entity. There are many economies, living side by side, using the same currency." Only when Suharto's technocrats find a way to gear these economies together will Indonesia be well on the way to realizing its giant potential...