The lessons Cambodia could learn from Indonesia: growing and stable while corrupt and authoritarian...Suharto, the former Indonesian strongman who died Sunday at the age of 86, was reviled as the man who brought Indonesia to its knees when his 32-year rule ended in a frenzy of violence, corruption and economic collapse.
Suharto's achievements were significant, nonetheless. Over the 30 years leading up to the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Indonesia achieved an average economic growth of 7 per cent. Suharto opened the economy to the outside world, and attracted billions in foreign. His rule – oppressive as it was – also brought a measure of harmony to a multi-ethnic society. It kept the threat of extremist Islam in check in the world's largest Muslim nation.
During his rule his six children became notorious for profiting from everything from toll roads to the issuing of driving licences. Although Suharto liberalised the economy, he never nurtured the institutional strengths needed to underpin it. Regulation of the banking sector was weak, and the country was ill-equipped to withstand the economic crisis that hastened the end of his tenure.
Suharto's legacy remains a subject of passionate debate amongst the people he ruled. He led Indonesia out of chaos and built an economic tiger out of a turbulent, multi-ethnic nation. But the rule that began in chaos also ended in chaos, aggravated by the corruption he condoned and even encouraged. In the end, he was the architect of his own demise.
No comments:
Post a Comment