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Indonesia: Anti-IMF Rhetoric Tailored for Muslims
June 7, 2002
Summary
Indonesia's minister of national development planning has called for the relationship between the International Monetary Fund and Jakarta to end after November. The minister knows very well that the country cannot afford to kick out the IMF; his rhetoric actually is aimed at helping President Megawati Sukarnoputri's party maintain support among the country's Muslims and stave off challenges from more fundamentalist parties.
Analysis
Indonesia's minister of national development planning, Kwik Kian Gie, called on the government June 1 to sever contact with the International Monetary Fund once their mutual contract expires in November, Jakarta Post reported. Kwik likened the IMF to a colonial power and claimed that in return for loans the lender has bound Indonesia to rules and regulations that have caused the country to devolve further into bankruptcy and disorder.
Indonesia is not in a position economically to turn away either the money the IMF can inject or the benefit to its reputation that cooperating with the Western institution brings. As a member of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Cabinet and of the Democratic Party of Struggle, Kwik understands Jakarta's need for relations with the IMF.
His assertions were motivated ultimately by political rather than economic considerations -- namely maintaining support among the country's Muslims and countering challenges from more fundamentalist parties. At a time when Indonesia's 90 percent-Muslim population is growing increasingly anti-West, his comments were essentially an attempt to show the populace that Megawati's party isn't a Western puppet.
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Dan
Indonesia: Anti-IMF Rhetoric Tailored for Muslims . . .