2 posts tagged “economics”

Thailand turns into Indonesia - and vice versa

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/thailan...

Thailand likes to call itself The Land of Smiles. And for a while after the advent of democracy in 1992 this seemed to be unusually accurate for an official slogan. Democracy seemed to flourish. Even during the traumatic Asian economic crisis of 1997 the generals stayed in their barracks. Growth quickly returned. The tourists flooded in. Foreign investors smiled on the Thais, who returned the favour. In the parallel universe known as Indonesia, the picture was more ominous. Its slogan, Unity in Diversity, seemed an exercise in dark sarcasm. Diversity was hammered into frightened unity by its military dictator, Soeharto. When the Asian crisis forced Soeharto out of power in 1998 the outlook only seemed to darken. A succession of simpletons and underperformers took the presidency. The economy was moribund. Islam woke from its long slumber under Soeharto and seemed to be asserting itself. Its diversity would now be repressed by the Muslim majority, it appeared. Indonesia's prospects seemed to go from bad to worse. Terrorists bombed tourists in the peaceful holiday destination of Bali. The Petri dish of Indonesian Islam seemed to be breeding a newly virulent form of violent extremism. Investors gave the country a wide berth. If Thailand seemed to represent sunrise in South-East Asia, Indonesia appeared to be the region's nightfall. Today we see an extraordinary role reversal.

Interesting opinion piece.  I don't follow Asian politics as closely as I used to and have only been vaguely aware of what has been happening in Thailand.  I wonder if the Indonesians on Vox agree that the situation in Indonesia is starting to improve?  It is 13 years since I was in Indonesia proper (a short holiday to Bali doesn't really count).  I was working in government there during the dying days of the Suharto administration so got to witness some of the corruption and lethargy first hand.  I even spoke to older Indonesians who claimed that things were better under the Dutch than they were under Suharto.  I would love to think that this description was an accurate one:

"Indonesia in 2008 is a stable, competitive electoral democracy, with a highly decentralised system of governance, achieving solid rates of economic growth, under competent national leadership, and playing a constructive role in the regional and broader international community."

 

Indonesia flag (with clipping path)

 

Show us who you idolized as a teenager.

Paul Keating Treasurer

Some people will find this extremely sad but I was a huge fan of politician Paul Keating in my late teens (around 17-18 years old).  He was Treasurer when I was at high school and just starting to take an interest in politics.  I studied a lot of his economic reforms as part of my high school economics course and admired what he was trying to achieve (it probably also helped that I was too young to be affected by some of the negative fallout such as the rising interest rates).  After university, I worked in Canberra under both the Hawke and Keating Labor governments and came to admire Paul Keating even more then.  Not only was he extremely witty (as evidenced by this archive of some of his more famous insults) but his politics seemed so courageous and forward-looking, including his vision of Australia as a republic and his belief in closer ties between Australia and its Asian neighbours (this latter also benefited me personally as an Asian linguist). I was working in Jakarta when the Howard Government got elected and I honestly felt like not coming home.  Sure enough many of my worst fears were realised in the following years and it wasn't long before I packed up and left Canberra for Sydney.  I just couldn't stand working for that "dessicated coconut" and his cronies any longer.