Indonesia’s lonely battle
November 16th 1998 02:53
Expendable pawns and few mates
I lived in Hong Kong for 16 years until 2007. In 1998 and 1999 I wrote a series of political, investment and social commentaries for a quirky institutional newsletter - quirky in that it was intended to be as much contentious, offbeat and humorous as it was informative. I was working as an editor, and I wrote the articles under the pseudonym Red Inque. I post them here for anyone interested in a look at life in Asia at the time, especially in Hong Kong just after its return to Chinese sovereignty.
Red Inque has a chess software package on his home computer which is notable for being free, for not playing at a very high standard, and for thrashing him mercilessly. When it comes to chess, Inque stinks. For some unfathomable reason, the programme’s designers decided to call it Gnu, and I keep track of our games in an Excel file named Me ‘n’ Gnu.
While I was playing a few games on Friday night, 14 people died on the streets of Jakarta, shot dead by soldiers who didn’t like what they were doing, which was calling for democratic reform.
If the previous sentence was a bit of a mind flip, and shockingly callous along with it, it was meant to be. It is an allegory for the way the rest of the world, the rest of Asia, and even Indonesia’s ASEAN partners, will react with indifference. Leaving out the social and philosophical implications, which are matters for wiser heads than this one, it will be business as usual come Monday. There will be no plummeting stock prices, at least not because of things Indonesian, when Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo open today; even more apathetic will be the markets in Sydney, London and New York.
Indonesia is alone at the moment. The international community just does not care, certainly not in the way, say, that there was dismay and genuine concern when things started going badly awry in Russia. And while the IMF has not exactly turned its back, there are no white knights to broker a Mexico-style quick turnaround.
Some years ago, a free-thinking Western politician suggested that India and Indonesia, the world’s second and fifth most populated nations, should be invited to join the UN Security Council, at one stroke broadening that chamber’s scope of thinking and enfranchising the Third World. Suharto was in power, of course, but perhaps despotism was a little more acceptable in the years when it was a little more common. Suharto hardly ranks with Idi Amin and Nicolae Ceaucescu in the pure evil stakes, but the 32-year history of Suharto Family Inc is a history of the worst sort of rapacity, bleeding his country and leaving his countrymen to grovel.
It is the sons and daughters of Suharto’s victims, of course, who are now taking to the streets, dodging bullets and demanding change. It is grimly ironic that the riots have been sparked by a special meeting of parliament which is discussing change. According to the legislators, it is far-reaching democratic reform which will make a freer and better Indonesia. According to the students, it is far too little and, so long as it refuses to remove the military from holding parliamentary seats, it is bollocks.
Here’s a bit of fanciful thinking. What if Bill Clinton, having got Saddam organised for the moment, changed his mind and decided to come to the APEC meeting in Kuala Lumpur after all. Once there, he starts thinking along the lines that he could score some brownie points in the Muslim world by holding out a helping hand to Indonesia. Not everyone may be happy with the pace or the agenda, but President Habibie is undoubtedly heading in the direction of democracy. If we ignore Irian Jaya momentarily for a greater good, Indonesia has no major warts. A quick detour by Clinton from KL, where there is nothing interesting on the agenda anyway, to Jakarta, some words of encouragement for the reform process, a quick billion or so aid package and a photo session with Habibie might calm things down wonderfully.
I lived in Hong Kong for 16 years until 2007. In 1998 and 1999 I wrote a series of political, investment and social commentaries for a quirky institutional newsletter - quirky in that it was intended to be as much contentious, offbeat and humorous as it was informative. I was working as an editor, and I wrote the articles under the pseudonym Red Inque. I post them here for anyone interested in a look at life in Asia at the time, especially in Hong Kong just after its return to Chinese sovereignty.
Red Inque has a chess software package on his home computer which is notable for being free, for not playing at a very high standard, and for thrashing him mercilessly. When it comes to chess, Inque stinks. For some unfathomable reason, the programme’s designers decided to call it Gnu, and I keep track of our games in an Excel file named Me ‘n’ Gnu.
While I was playing a few games on Friday night, 14 people died on the streets of Jakarta, shot dead by soldiers who didn’t like what they were doing, which was calling for democratic reform.
If the previous sentence was a bit of a mind flip, and shockingly callous along with it, it was meant to be. It is an allegory for the way the rest of the world, the rest of Asia, and even Indonesia’s ASEAN partners, will react with indifference. Leaving out the social and philosophical implications, which are matters for wiser heads than this one, it will be business as usual come Monday. There will be no plummeting stock prices, at least not because of things Indonesian, when Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo open today; even more apathetic will be the markets in Sydney, London and New York.
Indonesia is alone at the moment. The international community just does not care, certainly not in the way, say, that there was dismay and genuine concern when things started going badly awry in Russia. And while the IMF has not exactly turned its back, there are no white knights to broker a Mexico-style quick turnaround.
Some years ago, a free-thinking Western politician suggested that India and Indonesia, the world’s second and fifth most populated nations, should be invited to join the UN Security Council, at one stroke broadening that chamber’s scope of thinking and enfranchising the Third World. Suharto was in power, of course, but perhaps despotism was a little more acceptable in the years when it was a little more common. Suharto hardly ranks with Idi Amin and Nicolae Ceaucescu in the pure evil stakes, but the 32-year history of Suharto Family Inc is a history of the worst sort of rapacity, bleeding his country and leaving his countrymen to grovel.
It is the sons and daughters of Suharto’s victims, of course, who are now taking to the streets, dodging bullets and demanding change. It is grimly ironic that the riots have been sparked by a special meeting of parliament which is discussing change. According to the legislators, it is far-reaching democratic reform which will make a freer and better Indonesia. According to the students, it is far too little and, so long as it refuses to remove the military from holding parliamentary seats, it is bollocks.
Here’s a bit of fanciful thinking. What if Bill Clinton, having got Saddam organised for the moment, changed his mind and decided to come to the APEC meeting in Kuala Lumpur after all. Once there, he starts thinking along the lines that he could score some brownie points in the Muslim world by holding out a helping hand to Indonesia. Not everyone may be happy with the pace or the agenda, but President Habibie is undoubtedly heading in the direction of democracy. If we ignore Irian Jaya momentarily for a greater good, Indonesia has no major warts. A quick detour by Clinton from KL, where there is nothing interesting on the agenda anyway, to Jakarta, some words of encouragement for the reform process, a quick billion or so aid package and a photo session with Habibie might calm things down wonderfully.
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