Wanted in Indonesia – Technocrats

Wanted — Technocrats

By Karim Raslan on 06:20 pm Mar 12, 2014

On Jan. 31, Gita Wirjawan, who was Indonesia’s minister of trade, surprised everyone by resigning from his Cabinet post in order to concentrate on his nascent political career.

Gita — a Harvard-educated investment banker turned government official — is running in the ruling Democratic Party’s presidential primaries. He’s also a close confidant of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

While the Democrats are suffering from corruption scandals and the sheer fatigue of incumbency, Gita is a fresh face who has both integrity and policy smarts. His move is likely to turn the heat on his political rivals. Still, Gita is not the only technocrat who is toying with full-time politics. His fellow Democrat hopefuls (all technocrats par excellence) Anies Baswedan and Dino Patti Djalal have also put their careers on hold.

However, given the current mood vis-a-vis politicians, maybe they should all reconsider. As disenchantment with “politikus” grows, voters are looking to technocrats to fill the leadership void.

This isn’t something new. When Suharto became president in 1967 (having taken effective power from Sukarno in 1965), Indonesia’s economy was in dire straits and parts of the country were on the brink of famine. Suharto moved to rope in a group of US-educated Indonesian economists, dubbed the “Berkeley Mafia” (after the alma mater of several of them) for his administration.

Prominent members of this group include the respected economist Widjojo Nitisastro, who eventually became coordinating minister for economy, finance and industry in 1973. There was also Emil Salim, who among other things was minister of state for development supervision and the environment from 1978-83.

Under the Berkeley Mafia, Suharto’s New Order reversed Sukarno’s policies of nationalization and heavy borrowing in favor of deregulation, controlling inflation and producing a balanced budget.

While many blamed them in later years for failing to rein in Suharto’s excesses, under their watch Indonesia’s economy enjoyed three decades of economic growth averaging at around 6.5 percent per annum from the late 1960s until 1997. Fast forward to today and Indonesia still needs technocrats, if not more so.

SBY has drawn from their “class” extensively — Boediono, Chatib Basri, Dahlan Iskan and Sri Mulyani Indrawati. All of them have played a vital role in managing Indonesia’s economy in the wake of recent global economic uncertainties.

But their tenure is coming to an end and it would be a tragedy if the next government — whoever leads it — privileges political ties above talent.

Because make no mistake, Indonesia’s economy although promising is facing huge challenges.

Inflation rose 11.35 percent in 2013 due to increases in staple food prices, including rice.

This is turn can be attributed to failed agricultural policies. Indonesia is an enthusiastic practitioner of import restrictions for agricultural products in the name of protecting local farmers. Such policies have however not included complimentary attempts to boost local agricultural production.

At the same time, Indonesia’s education system is sorely underperforming despite 30.4 billion dollar (or 20 percent of the entire state budget) being funneled to it last year. A major controversy erupted last year when it was announced that under a new curriculum, Indonesian schoolchildren would spend less time learning science, English and information technology in favor of Bahasa Indonesia and religious as well as civic studies.

Agriculture and education are just two policy sectors for which Indonesia needs capable and honest administrators. This is all the more so with the advent of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 looming, when already-intense regional competition will become a brutal free-for-all.

Regardless of where his political future takes him, men like Gita can transform the Republic.

Karim Raslan is a columnist who divides his time between Indonesia and Malaysia.