Word: sukarno
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...tour d'horizon includes essays on Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Viet Nam and Cambodia. Its most compelling section explores Indonesia. In a fascinating flashback that offers a good deal of new material, Shaplen re-examines the abortive Communist coup of 1965, emphasizing the probability that President Sukarno himself was involved in the takeover attempt. Despite the bloodbath that followed and the interior problems left by the Sukarno era, Shaplen sees Indonesia, the world's fifth-largest nation (pop. 113 million), as holding the "key to the region's future...
These are the hot and sticky days in Djakarta. From countless roadside stands, spicy odors of cooking food mingle with the smell of the clove-scented cigarettes so favored in Indonesia. Skeletons of unfinished skyscrapers still stand as bleak monuments to the grandiose dreams of the Sukarno era; three-wheeled betjak rickshas duel with decrepit cars on the capital's crowded streets, just as they have for years. But despite the outward resemblances to the bad old days, change is coming to Indonesia. In sharp contrast to the early '60s, that change is for the better...
Given the near-total economic chaos left behind by Sukarno, improvement is bound to be slow. Still, in the 2½ years since President Suharto's government began its stabilization program, real progress has been made. At the moment, says a senior Western diplomat with long experience in Indonesia, "the internal situation is remarkably calm, and to anyone who has known Indonesia over the years, this is simply fantastic." With at least temporary political stability in hand, Suharto's small group of Western-trained economists has managed to balance Indonesia's budget for the first time...
Crude Instruments. There were risks involved in what the economists did, notably in lifting Sukarno's foreign-exchange restrictions to stimulate exports. "It was like a doctor operating on a patient," says Mohammad Sadli, head of the Foreign Investment Board. "The patient was too weak, and our instruments were crude, but we couldn't postpone the operation." In 1966, the inflation rate was 650%; now it is being held below 25% a year. The basic price of rice has been stabilized at less than half the top price of last year...
...long way off. The nation's Chinese minority (about 3,000,000 out of a total population of more than 112 million) is a problem. They control an estimated 75% of Indonesian commerce, which provokes resentment. Moreover many of the Communists and their sympathizers who backed Sukarno were ethnic Chinese. All this makes it more difficult for the present government to utilize fully the Chinese citizens' considerable economic talents...