The Week In Review: Big dream and grim reality
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono early this week promised the people the moon, unveiling a vision to expand the national economy from US$700 billion now to between $3,850-$4,500 billion by 2025, or the 12th largest in the world., with a per capita income of $13,000 to $16,000, as against $3,000 at present.
But the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of the Indonesian Economic Development in 2011-2025 he announced at a two-day national gathering of ministers, regional government and business leaders, which ended on Tuesday, seemed to be another example of Yudhoyono’s grandstanding.
Two days after the conference the President had to put the nation on the highest level of alert against terrorist bombs after the discovery Thursday of a bomb weighing 150 kilograms next to a gas pipeline near a Catholic church within the Gading Serpong residential complex in Tangerang, near Jakarta.
Earlier Thursday morning, security officials arrested 19 suspects related to the recent book bomb attacks, who led the police to the massive bombs, which was to be exploded during the Good Friday celebrations.
The economic master plan is long on seemingly grand designs on investment plans but acutely short on technical details on how the government and the private sector will go about delivering all the highly ambitious targets.
The master plan designates six regions as main economic corridors for which a total of $385 billion in new investment will be needed.
Sumatra will be developed as an agricultural and energy center, development in Kalimantan will focus on mining and energy and Sulawesi and North Maluku on agriculture and fishery, Bali and East and West Nusa Tenggara on tourism and national food crops, Papua and Maluku on natural and human resources and Java on industry and services.
But Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association, represented the mood of most businesspeople when he said rather cynically that whatever the master plan was about, it was foremost for the government to rebuild public trust in its promise.
There have been too many plans which remain unimplemented due to bureaucratic inertia, regulatory bottlenecks and an acute lack of basic infrastructure.
Four days before the national gathering, the government and the chamber of commerce and industry hosted a two-day international conference and exhibition on infrastructure development.
But all the big talks about the big infrastructure projects worth tens of billions of dollars seemed to remain a dream because one fundamental issue — the arduous and punitively costly process of land acquisition — remains unresolved.
*****
The economic vision was unveiled against the backdrop of a series of grim realities which confronted the people in their daily lives over the last few days.
Only two days before the opening of the big national conference in Bogor near Jakarta, another suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque inside a Cirebon Police complex in West Java, injuring more than two dozen worshipers, mostly Police officers who were attending a Friday prayer service, last week.
The latest blast further lengthened the list of terrorist bombs in the country over the last 12 years, starting with the attacks on Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Syuhada mosque in Yogyakarta in 1999, the bombings of churches on New Year’s Eve in 2000, the bomb attacks in Bali in 2002, the hotel and embassy attacks in Jakarta in 2002 and 2004, more carnage in Bali in 2005, and two simultaneous major bomb blasts in two Jakarta hotels in 2009.
Two days after the suicide bomb in Cirebon, 14 farmers from Urutsewu district in Kebumen, Central Java, were wounded by gunfire during a confrontation with soldiers guarding an Army research and development office.
The conflict erupted after residents, who had long protested the Army’s use of the area for weapons and ballistics training, blocked troops from using the location last week and vandalized a nearby research facility with knives and makeshift weapons.
A few hours before the President opened the national gathering in Bogor, thousands of local people in West Sumbawa in the eastern part of the country, with the full support of the local administration, staged protests over the central government’s decision to acquire 7 percent of the giant Newmont copper and gold mine.
The demonstrations turned violent as protesters attempting to close down the Batu Hijau gold mining complex clashed with police guarding the entrance to the mine. They demanded the central government drop its plan to buy the shares and leave them to the West Sumbawa administration.
West Sumbawa Regent Zulkifli Muhadli insisted the protesters acted on their own initiative but logistical support from the local administration was quite obvious in the organization of the mass demonstrations.
The protests and the repeated threats from the West Sumbawa administration to close down the multi-billion dollar gold and copper mining complex will certainly hurt new investment in the country.
The bulk of the hundreds of billions of dollars to be invested during the 2011-2025 master plan period is designed to be allocated to regencies outside of Java where most of the country’s rich natural resources are located, but investors will likely be turned off if regional administration leaders are as misguided as those in West Sumbawa.
But the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of the Indonesian Economic Development in 2011-2025 he announced at a two-day national gathering of ministers, regional government and business leaders, which ended on Tuesday, seemed to be another example of Yudhoyono’s grandstanding.
Two days after the conference the President had to put the nation on the highest level of alert against terrorist bombs after the discovery Thursday of a bomb weighing 150 kilograms next to a gas pipeline near a Catholic church within the Gading Serpong residential complex in Tangerang, near Jakarta.
Earlier Thursday morning, security officials arrested 19 suspects related to the recent book bomb attacks, who led the police to the massive bombs, which was to be exploded during the Good Friday celebrations.
The economic master plan is long on seemingly grand designs on investment plans but acutely short on technical details on how the government and the private sector will go about delivering all the highly ambitious targets.
The master plan designates six regions as main economic corridors for which a total of $385 billion in new investment will be needed.
Sumatra will be developed as an agricultural and energy center, development in Kalimantan will focus on mining and energy and Sulawesi and North Maluku on agriculture and fishery, Bali and East and West Nusa Tenggara on tourism and national food crops, Papua and Maluku on natural and human resources and Java on industry and services.
But Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association, represented the mood of most businesspeople when he said rather cynically that whatever the master plan was about, it was foremost for the government to rebuild public trust in its promise.
There have been too many plans which remain unimplemented due to bureaucratic inertia, regulatory bottlenecks and an acute lack of basic infrastructure.
Four days before the national gathering, the government and the chamber of commerce and industry hosted a two-day international conference and exhibition on infrastructure development.
But all the big talks about the big infrastructure projects worth tens of billions of dollars seemed to remain a dream because one fundamental issue — the arduous and punitively costly process of land acquisition — remains unresolved.
*****
The economic vision was unveiled against the backdrop of a series of grim realities which confronted the people in their daily lives over the last few days.
Only two days before the opening of the big national conference in Bogor near Jakarta, another suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque inside a Cirebon Police complex in West Java, injuring more than two dozen worshipers, mostly Police officers who were attending a Friday prayer service, last week.
The latest blast further lengthened the list of terrorist bombs in the country over the last 12 years, starting with the attacks on Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Syuhada mosque in Yogyakarta in 1999, the bombings of churches on New Year’s Eve in 2000, the bomb attacks in Bali in 2002, the hotel and embassy attacks in Jakarta in 2002 and 2004, more carnage in Bali in 2005, and two simultaneous major bomb blasts in two Jakarta hotels in 2009.
Two days after the suicide bomb in Cirebon, 14 farmers from Urutsewu district in Kebumen, Central Java, were wounded by gunfire during a confrontation with soldiers guarding an Army research and development office.
The conflict erupted after residents, who had long protested the Army’s use of the area for weapons and ballistics training, blocked troops from using the location last week and vandalized a nearby research facility with knives and makeshift weapons.
A few hours before the President opened the national gathering in Bogor, thousands of local people in West Sumbawa in the eastern part of the country, with the full support of the local administration, staged protests over the central government’s decision to acquire 7 percent of the giant Newmont copper and gold mine.
The demonstrations turned violent as protesters attempting to close down the Batu Hijau gold mining complex clashed with police guarding the entrance to the mine. They demanded the central government drop its plan to buy the shares and leave them to the West Sumbawa administration.
West Sumbawa Regent Zulkifli Muhadli insisted the protesters acted on their own initiative but logistical support from the local administration was quite obvious in the organization of the mass demonstrations.
The protests and the repeated threats from the West Sumbawa administration to close down the multi-billion dollar gold and copper mining complex will certainly hurt new investment in the country.
The bulk of the hundreds of billions of dollars to be invested during the 2011-2025 master plan period is designed to be allocated to regencies outside of Java where most of the country’s rich natural resources are located, but investors will likely be turned off if regional administration leaders are as misguided as those in West Sumbawa.
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