Reflections on Economic Policy Making: 1945–51

Editorial Note:Mohammad Saubari was Secretary-General of the Department of Finance in the early 1950s. After his suspension from the civil service during the Guided Democracy years, he worked for several United Nations agencies in Indonesia. The following note, is based on his comments on the Indonesian translation of the interview with Professor Sumitro (Sumitro 1986), which were published in Kompas earlier this year, on his contribution to a commemorative volume published to honour Sjafruddin Prawiranegara in 1986, and on an interview which he gave to Anne Booth and Thee Kian-Wie in Jakarta in May 1987.     

Recollections of My Careerlections of My Career

Suhadi Mangkusuwondo, Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia (FEUI), was born in Solo, Central Java, in December 1927. After participating in the war of independence, he resumed his secondary education in Malang, completing it in 1949. He then studied economics at the University of Indonesia (UI) and later became a teaching assistant there. Suhadi spent two years doing postgraduate study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later obtained a PhD in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Returning to Indonesia and his teaching post at FEUI, he became editor of the journal Economics and Finance in Indonesia (EKI). He was Head of the R&D Agency in the Department of Trade from 1973 to 1975 and again in 1983-88, and Director General of Foreign Trade from 1975 to 1983. Professor Suhadi served as the Representative of the Government of Indonesia in the Uruguay Round when it was launched in 1986, and since 1992 has been a member of the Eminent Persons Group of the APEC (Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation) forum. His other activities include membership of Indonesia's National Research Council (DRN), and of organisations such as the Regional Advisory Board of the ASEAN Economic Bulletin, the journal of the ASEAN Economic Research Unit of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. He is now also Vice Chairman of the Jakarta-based Trade and Development Institute. On 8 July 1994, Professor Suhadi talked with H.W. Arndt, Hal Hill and Thee Kian Wie about his views on Indonesia's economic development under the New Order, and particularly about trade policy. On 19 September 1995, in a second interview with H.W. Arndt, Mari Pangestu and Thee Kian Wie, he elaborated further on his work at the Ministry of Trade and his participation in the Uruguay Round and the APEC Eminent Persons Group (EPG).     

Recollections of My Career

Mohammad Sadli, Professor Emeritus in the University of Indonesia's Faculty of Economics and Chairman of the Institute for Research and Development (LP3E) of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), is one of the group of economists who fashioned Indonesian economic policy under the New Order government after it took power in 1965. He was Chairman of the Technical Committee for Capital Investment (1967–73), Minister of Manpower (1971–73), Minister of Mining (1973–78), Secretary-General of Kadin, and later LP3E-Kadin's first director. Despite retiring from the University in 1987, Professor Sadli continues to write and give seminars in Indonesia and abroad. In 1992 he granted an interview to Thee Kian Wie and Chris Manning of the BIES Editorial Board, and discussed his career, economic policy formulation in the early years of the New Order, and issues such as foreign investment, manpower and labour relations, the 1975 Pertamina crisis and government-private sector interaction.     

Recollections of my Career

Subroto, Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia (FEUI), is one of the architects of the economic policies that brought growing prosperity to Indonesia over the New Order years Educated in Dutch colonial and Japanese occupation schools, he joined Indonesia's independence struggle, and later studied economics at FEUI, McGill University, MIT, and Stanford and Harvard Universities. He taught international economics and business cycles at FEUI and was Secretary of the Faculty. With Widjojo Nitisastro, Mohammad Sadh, Ali Wardhana and Emil Salim, Subroto was appointed a Personal Economic Adviser to General (later President) Soeharto's new government in 1966 In 1968 he joined the Department of Trade, and later was minister of departments responsible for transmigration, cooperatives, mining and energy. After a 17-year ministerial career serving in four consecutive cabinets, Subroto was Secretary General of OPEC for six years from 1988 He remains active in Indonesia's nongovernmental Indonesian Institute for Energy Economics (IIEE), writing on energy problems, and is also Rector of the private Pancasila University in South Jakarta As part of our occasional series of interviews with economists who have helped shape New Order Indonesia, Professor Subroto talked with Chris Manning and Thee Kian VVie of the Bulletin's Editorial Board about his experience as a cabinet minister and as Secretary General of OPEC, and about his views on Indonesia's economic development, particularly its energy problems.     

Recollections of My Career

The Bulletin's occasional series of interviews with the older generation of economists has so far focused upon those who have served as ministers or held high positions in the civil service. A rather different perspective on economic conditions and economic policy under the Old Order is offered here by one of Indonesia's veteran pribumi (indigenous) entrepreneurs, Soedarpo Sastrosatomo, best known for his involvement with Bank Niaga and the Samudera Indonesia shipping group. Notable as one of the few pribumi to have survived in the forefront of business since the early years of Independence, he aimed in his business ventures to be an agent of soaoeconomic progress, a goal for which he is still working. His experience covers the fields of importing, office machines and computers (Soedarpo Corporation, est. 1952), insurance (Asuransi Bintang, est. early 1955), banking (Bank Niaga, est. late 1955) and, in the transport industry, agencies, stevedoring, shipping and freight forwarding (Samudera Indonesia and associated firms, 1964 onwards).

In view of the priority given after Independence to fostering the emergence of an indigenous business elite and the generally disappointing results, an underlying theme is that elusive factor of production, entrepreneurship. The interview therefore devotes some attention to Soedarpo's atypical family and educational background, as a prelude to his acquisition of banking skills and foreign contacts during a posting to the United Nations in New York (1948–50). By 1952, when he embarked on a business career, he was still inexperienced but better prepared than most of his contemporaries. The middle sections of the interview focus on the problems of capital formation, import licensing and inflation under the Old Order. Finally, Samudera Indonesia's role in the development of Indonesia's deepsea liner shipping is traced from the mid 1960s into the 1980s, showing how, even for a mature enterprise, survival still depends upon a judicious combination of local knowkdge, foreign Connections, and scarce capital.     

A finnish textbook in economic history

Abstract

There is, to my knowledge, no work exactly corresponding to Professor Jutikkala's in any of the major languages. Uudenajan taloushistoria is a comprehensive and very skilful exposition of the economic development of the modern world and certainly much more than simply a good textbook in which material from generally recognized standard works, partial surveys, and particular investigations is brought together and rearranged. However much Professor jutikkala may have drawn upon the available modern literature, upon the writings of Heckscher, Clapham, Cole, Ashton, Ashley, Sombart, and other authorities, his book is stamped first and foremost by his own great familiarity with the vast field of his subject, by his own research and experience-especially in the field of agrarian and social history—and by his great versatility as a scholar. The author is not simply a historian with an economic training; he is also very conscious of the fact that economic development never occurs in society in forms which allow of a purely economic exposition. His method is—to     

CLIFFORD GEERTZ, 1926–2006: MEANING,METHOD AND INDONESIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY

Clifford Geertz was best known for his pioneering excursions into symbolic or in terpretive anthropology, especially in relation to Indonesia. Less well recognised are his stimulating explorations of the modern economic history of Indonesia. His thinking on the interplay of economics and culture was most fully and vigorously expounded in Agricultural Involution. That book deployed a succinctly packaged past in order to solve a pressing contemporary puzzle, Java's enduring rural poverty and apparent social immobility. Initially greeted with acclaim, later and ironically the book stimulated the deep and multi-layered research that in fact led to the eventual rejection of Geertz's central contentions. But the veracity or otherwise of Geertz's inventive characterisation of Indonesian economic development now seems irrelevant; what is profoundly important is the extraordinary stimulus he gave to a generation of scholars to explore Indonesia's modern economic history with a depth and intensity previously unimaginable.     

Growth,Poverty, and Inequality under Jokowi

SUMMARY

The political authority of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) was bolstered in the third quarter of 2015 by a cabinet reshuffle, his coalition's gaining a parliamentary majority, and several foreign-policy developments. Indonesia's request to rejoin OPEC, for example, after having left in 2008, seemed more about international relations than oil prices, while official visits to the Middle East and the United States allowed Jokowi to project his presidency on the international stage. He still faces resistance from within his own party, however.

Jokowi's politically bold reshuffle of economic ministers in August soon yielded a range of policy announcements. In September and October, his government introduced its first substantial set of reforms—a number of economic policy packages intended, among other things, to attract investment and stimulate domestic demand. If even half of these policies are put in place, the impact on Indonesia's economy should be tangible.

Few countries have escaped the effects of falling global commodity prices and China's growth slowdown. At 4.7%, year on year, in the third quarter Indonesia's rate of economic growth again fell short of the government's target. Slowing growth and a negative outlook have lowered market expectations and weakened the rupiah, which is also burdened by the large outstanding external debt held by corporate borrowers. Indonesia's real effective exchange rate has recently begun to depreciate, however, which may stimulate exports. Growth prospects will also improve if the substantial increase in capital and infrastructure spending allocated in the state budget is realised.

Against this backdrop, we focus on what has happened to poverty and inequality in Indonesia since Jokowi took office. The distributional impacts of the current macroeconomic climate are likely to be hardest felt by the poor. Indonesia is well known for its record on poverty reduction, but between September 2014 and March 2015 the share of the population in poverty increased, even though economic growth was close to 5.0%. Slowing growth, rising food prices, the falling real wages of farmers, and the delayed disbursement of fuel-price compensation all had an effect. Such impacts may be mitigated in the medium term by Jokowi's budget reallocations to infrastructure, if realised, and his expansion of social spending.     

Recollections of An Itinerant Career

Of the many foreign social scientists who have carried out fieldwork in Indonesia since the second world war, few have gone on to reach the eminence of Professor Clifford Geertz. His books, written largely on the basis of his work in Java and Bali in the 1950s, have become classics. They have inspired a vast amount of debate and subsequent research on issues as diverse as the anthropology of religion and the economics of agricultural development, both in Indonesia and in other parts of the developing world. In 1986 Professor Geertz spent six months revisiting his original fieldwork site in Pare, East Java. During a visit to Canberra in late 1987, he gave the following interview to Anne Booth and Jamie Mackie. The interview began with a question on how the original decision came to be made for a group of Harvard graduate students to mount a team study of Pare in 1952.     

In defence of Heckscher and the idea of Mercantilism

Abstract

In his recent reappraisal of Heckscher's Mercantilism ² Dr. Coleman raised certain questions concerning Heckscher's methodological approach which transcend the immediate problem of the nature and validity of the idea of ‘mercantilism’ and have a bearing upon the broader issue of the relationships between economic conditions, ideas and policy. To the present writer, the danger that Heckscher's development of the idea of mercantilism will drive yet another wedge between the political and the economic historians as Dr. Coleman fears,³ is less serious than the danger that Heckscher's apparent reluctance to admit the influence of economic conditions upon economic ideas,⁴ and his readiness to pass directly from generalizations about economic ideas to generalizations about economic policy, will widen the existing gap between economic historians and historians of economic doctrine, two groups of scholars whose mutual services should be considerable. To the student of economic ideas who seeks to rescue his discipline from the sterile pursuit of tracing the genealogy of particular analytic propositions, of which some of his colleagues seem inordinately fond, the matter is one of crucial importance.     

Widjojo Nitisastro and Indonesian development

Widjojo Nitisastro (2010) Pengalaman Pembangunan Indonesia: Kumpulan Tulisan dan Uraian Widjojo Nitisastro [The Experience of Development in Indonesia: A Collection of the Writings of Widjojo Nitisastro], Penerbit Buku Kompas [Kompas Book Publishing], Jakarta.

Widjojo Nitisastro is one of Indonesia's best-known economic policy makers. Much has been written by others about his role as a top adviser over more than three decades. This collection of his own essays helps fill out the picture. Seven main policy themes may be identified: the role of economic growth in helping overcome mass poverty; the need for economic policy makers to pay close attention to risk management and be constantly ready to respond to economic shocks; the importance of strong leadership and discipline in government; the need to scrutinise investment programs closely; the high priority to be given to borrowing programs and debt management; the role of the price mechanism; and the management of Indonesia's relations with the international community. Strong messages about growth, leadership and stability permeate the essays. The collection is a valuable contribution to the literature on economic policy making in developing countries.     

Managing the Indonesian economy: Some lessons from the past

This paper draws some tentative lessons for the management of Indonesia's economy from recent political–economic history. After a brief review of the economy under the present government, the paper then puts the picture in the longer term perspective of post-independence Indonesia. Some lessons are then drawn. They include the need to maintain awareness of the close connection between economics and politics, constant vigilance about economic stability and the budget, a solid economic team, a coherent overall strategy and a focus on institutions and governance.     

Publications

Sumitro Djojohadikusmo, Indonesia Dalam Perkembungan Dunia: Kini dan Masa Datang [Indonesia in world development: The Present And The Future], Jakarta, LP3ES, 1976, pp. 229.

Indonesia: Business Opportunities in a Resource-Rich Economy, A Business International Asian Research Report, Asian House, Hong Kong, October 1975.

J. Stephen Hoadley, The Military in the Politics of Southeast Asia. A Comparative Perspective, Cambridge, Mass., Schenkman Publishing Co., 1975.

Masashi Nishihara, The Japanese and Sukarno's Indonesia: Tokyo-Jakarta Relations, 1961–1966, Monograph of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1976, pp. 24.     

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN INDONESIA: FIFTY YEARS OF DISCOURSE

The topic of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been prominent in assessments of economic development in Indonesia during the past 50 years. In this article I review Indonesia's FDI record in a historical perspective; the current urge to control FDI inflows and the need to augment domestic savings and facilitate technology transfers are not at all new in Indonesia. I draw in particular on the discourse on FDI in this journal, the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, giving special attention to contributions by this journal to the international literature on FDI and its impact. The article demonstrates that the relation between FDI and economic growth has been less straightforward in Indonesia than elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Although FDI has grown in a restrictive investment climate, on occasion it has failed to do so despite more liberal conditions. This may be attributed to the sustained role of natural resources in determining Indonesia's attractiveness as a host country of FDI.     

New light on eighteenth century Sweden

Abstract

The second part of the late Professor Eli F. Heckscher's Economic History of Sweden,¹ with its 894 pages of text, together with notes, tables, diagrams, maps and index, is a large work even by comparison with the first part, which, in 707 pages of text, covered both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In his introduction the author regrets that he was unable to retain the same clarity of layout. In fact, however, too concentrated an exposition would not have rendered justice to the astonishing research and the intensive thought, which have gone into the making of this book, and Heckscher's ability to capture the reader's attention by his lucidity of style and accessible presentation of his subject-matter is here shown to full advantage.²     

An Overview of the Proximate Determinants of Economic Growth in Indonesia Since 1960*

In this paper, we address two questions. First, what determined the growth of GDP per worker in Indonesia from 1960 to 2014? We examine Indonesia’s economic performance, using a growth accounting framework. We show that economic growth during the Soeharto era after 1975 was mainly determined by an increase in capital accumulation. Negative growth in total factor productivity (TFP) during the Asian financial crisis was more noticeable in Indonesia than in comparable ASEAN countries. In Indonesia, the contribution of TFP growth turned persistently positive after 1999. Second, what are the key determinants of the GDP per worker differences between Indonesia and the United States? Using data from the recently updated Penn World Table database and employing a levels accounting method, we find that the gap in physical capital deepening between the two countries is of declining importance in explaining the gap in labour productivity between Indonesia and the United States. We then compare our findings with data from the World Bank’s Changing Wealth of Nations 2018.     

Globalisation and its discontents: an Indonesian perspective

It is indeed a great honour for me to give the 2011 Heinz Arndt Memorial Lecture. The first time I met the great Professor Heinz Arndt was as a nine‐year‐old back in 1966 when our family first came to Canberra and Heinz was my father's (Panglaykim) new boss. I recall that he picked us up at the airport and within the first week we had visited his house in Deakin, where he gave me and my two brothers games such as Chinese checkers and books that his own kids had outgrown. So my first thought was: what a kind and thoughtful man. Little did I know that I would end up being what he often termed his ‘academic grandchild’. I never took a class from Heinz or was fortunate enough to be supervised by him. However, I had many interactions with him when I was a student at the Australian National University (ANU) and, upon graduation, as an aspiring young academic. He had an important influence on the course of my life. First, he encouraged me to do my PhD in the USA. After I completed my masters at the ANU under Peter Drysdale, I toyed with the idea of continuing with a PhD at the Research School of Pacific Studies. However, Heinz convinced me to go to the USA because he thought it would widen my horizons. He was right. Second, there was the importance of being disciplined and thorough in undertaking country or regional research. One of the most important initiation exercises for an academic working on Indonesia was to do a ‘Survey of Recent Developments’ for the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies. I recall being given a yellowed document that had been formulated by Heinz with precise guidelines on topics, structure, and people to see and interview. We found similar guidelines on regional surveys when we did economic surveys of all the provinces a few years later. I found that doing the research and interviews for the survey was the easy part. The hard part was the two weeks spent in Canberra writing up the survey and being subjected to peer review. The draft was presented to the ‘editorial team’ and others, including, of course, the venerable Professor Arndt. I am glad to say that I passed in terms of substance; but of course there were lots of edits to do following Heniz's traditional typed‐up comments, both general and specific! Third, despite being a formidable figure and someone with a reputation for strong opinions, Heinz was the same kind and thoughtful man I remembered as a nine‐year‐old. He always had the time of day for the young academics, especially those from Indonesia. I had many cups of tea with him as a student and later as an aspiring academic. I still recall his room in University House filled with his books and the filing cabinet near the bathroom, where he would inevitably pull out the right references and reading materials that one needed. I learned a lot about the importance of mentoring and encouraging the young—many of whom have succeeded and are in the room today. This lecture is to honour Professor Heinz Arndt. I believe Professor Arndt was a true internationalist and therefore he would tackle with gusto the rumblings of discontent on globalisation. He would be thorough in trying to understand the manifestations of globalisation and its sources of discontent. He would also be of the firm belief that the benefits of globalisation outweigh its costs and come up with strategic ideas on how to best manage globalisation to counter ‘globaphobia’. I hope I do justice to this topic in the Heinz Arndt tradition.     

Svenskt arbete och liv

Abstract

Among Eli F. Heckscher's works on economic history, his Merkantilismen (first published in Swedish, 1931) and Sveriges ekonomiska historia från Gustav Vasa (1935-50) are the most significant.     

The entelechies of mercantilism

Daniel Waldenström's debate article in this issue of the SEHR raises several interesting questions for discussion. I will not comment on his criticisms of Swedish economic historians' publishing practice and their international participation; I will state only that I think economic and business historians in the Nordic countries should increase their international activities and their publications in international journals. In my opinion this concerns particularly scholars in my own country, Norway. Waldenström makes, however, several normative assertions about economic history that concern the discipline as a whole, including the guiding principles of the editorial policy of the SEHR. His normative claims about content and the methodological foundations of economic history deserve an answer.