00074918.2014.896309

(1)

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cbie20

Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] Date: 17 January 2016, At: 23:26

Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies

ISSN: 0007-4918 (Print) 1472-7234 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbie20

Keizai taikoku Indonesia: 21 seiki no seicho joken

(Indonesia as an economic giant: Conditions for

growth in the 21st century)

Mitsuhiro Hayashi

To cite this article: Mitsuhiro Hayashi (2014) Keizai taikoku Indonesia: 21 seiki no seicho joken (Indonesia as an economic giant: Conditions for growth in the 21st century), Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 50:1, 146-148, DOI: 10.1080/00074918.2014.896309

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2014.896309

Published online: 24 Mar 2014.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 76

View related articles

(2)

146 Book Reviews

descent. It presents the life stories of 10 inspiring Chinese Indonesian women, including the economist and cabinet minister Mari Elka Pangestu, the highly accomplished scholar Mely G. Tan, the iconic igures Dian Muljadi and Obin, the badminton world champion Susi Susanti, and the author’s grandmother, among other extraordinary women.

These women, with their incredible achievements, emerged from a wide range of professions. They experienced the New Order era (and some the Sukarno era) and the May 1998 riots, and they are now witnessing the revitalisation of Chinese language, culture, and social organisations. They proudly identify themselves as Indonesians, while at the same time acknowledging their ancestral roots in the Middle Kingdom. They are great sources of inspiration for the younger genera-tions of Indonesians, ethnic Chinese or otherwise, men and women alike.

Dawis’s extended introduction provides a critical context for the individual stories that follow. In contrast to many academic papers and monographs on the same topic, this book describes the dense and intricate past of Indonesian Chinese in an accessible style, while carefully avoiding the pitfalls of oversimpliication.

By revealing details of the lives of these women, this book lends a human face to the daily challenges faced by the many thousands of Chinese Indonesian women. Dawis’s journalistic style makes it easy for readers to delve into the worlds of these remarkable characters. She weaves bourgeois-domestic topics into life in the shadow of authoritarian rule. Dawis strikes the right balance in portraying women with stellar careers, yet she also highlights the fact that the lives of many Chinese Indonesians have not passed calmly through the last ifty years. In keep -ing with the book’s polished style, a series of artistic portraits of these inspir-ing women gently accentuates their authentic idiosyncrasies.

Breaking Barriers is certainly not meant to thrill the reader in ways a detective story might, but I imagine that many readers will go through the book in a single sitting. I found myself wanting to read more about Chinese Indonesians, their ambitions and fears, their perspectives and confusions, their sense of history, and their plans for the future. For experts already familiar with the works of Wang Gengwu, Leo Suryadinata, and others in the ield, this book offers a welcome personal dimension; for the rest of us, it provides an insightful introduction into the diverse and inspiring multicultural world that is Indonesia.

Sherry Tao Kong

Peking University

Keizai taikoku Indonesia: 21 seiki no seicho joken (Indonesia as an economic giant: Conditions for growth in the 21st century). By Yuri Sato. Tokyo: Chuko Shinsho, 2011. Pp. 262. Paperback: ¥840.

Indonesia is an active research target, owing to its scale and diversity. Yet rela-tive to other Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand and the Philippines, or neighbouring Asian countries, such as China and Korea, Indonesia seems unfa-miliar to many in Japan. For most Japanese, the most recent and striking event in

(3)

Book Reviews 147

Indonesia may be the fall of Soeharto, in May 1998, during the Asian economic crisis.

Dr Yuri Sato, a well-known researcher in Indonesian studies at the Institute of Developing Economies, in Chiba, wrote this book in Japanese to encourage gen-eral readers in Japan to understand present-day Indonesia. Although the book has been published in a paperback pocket edition and is intended for a general readership, its scope will also satisfy academics and professionals in the ield. It analyses social and economic changes in Indonesia up to around 2010, and con-siders whether Indonesia could emerge as an economic giant in the 21st century. In particular, it considers two conditions for Indonesia to meet if it is to realise its potential: the effective use of the ‘demographic dividend’ (the beneits to the economy from a reduction in fertility and the subsequent increase in the share of working-age population to total population) and the continuing stability of its democracy and political system.

According to Sato, a stable political system and the harvest period of Indo-nesia’s demographic dividend (up to around 2030) can help Indonesia achieve sustainable economic growth, if it takes advantage of being a large country in terms of population, land area, and resources. Sato stresses, however, that Indo-nesia must make the most of this dividend by introducing economic policies that encourage a sustained decline in fertility, improve the quality of human resources, and create jobs for the working-age population. Sato argues that Indonesia must also be prepared to bear the adjustment costs, such as the involvement of stake-holders in policymaking and the inevitable delays created by democracy and decentralisation.

This book also examines the government’s Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development 2011–2025, which was formu-lated in 2011, during the Yudhoyono presidency. Sato discusses whether this mas-ter plan is suited to Indonesia’s characmas-teristics and factor endowments, explaining that it is intended not only to foster manufacturing but also to arrange engines for economic growth in agriculture, estate agriculture, mining, and services (as suited to each region), as well as to promote the shift from lower-processing to higher-processing production of agricultural and mineral resources. Sato calls the concept of development behind this master plan the ‘full-set type industrial struc-ture version 2’, which differs from the ‘full-set type industrial strucstruc-ture within the manufacturing sector’ of the Soeharto era. She regards the plan as an appropriate development strategy that takes into account Indonesia’s large population and abundant natural resources as well as its lack of experience in industrialisation. She concludes that Indonesia will advance at its own pace towards becoming an economic giant in this century.

Sato’s experience as a scholar of Indonesia allows her to describe vividly the real faces of the country’s economic technocrats, business people, and political leaders. Although critics say that the Yudhoyono administration has achieved lit-tle, Sato states that it should be praised for departing from ‘Soeharto’s authoritar-ian development system’ and establishing a ‘new development system’, which includes using private capital for infrastructure development, reducing iscal dependency on foreign aid, reducing fuel subsidies, and reforming bureaucracy.

Sato can perform the kind of comprehensive evaluation found in this book because, for a long time, she has observed Indonesia with an affectionate eye. Yet

(4)

148 Book Reviews

I would have liked the book to have devoted more space to the negative side of development in Indonesia, such as poverty and inequality, and to explain these problems in more detail. Nevertheless, the book deserves to be read widely; I hope to see an English edition in the future.

Mitsuhiro Hayashi

The Australian National University; Chuo University, Tokyo

Indonesia’s Economy since Independence. By Thee Kian Wie. Singapore: ISEAS, 2012. Pp. xiii + 307. Paperback: $42.90.

Thee Kian Wie was one of Indonesia’s most respected and most prominent eco-nomic historians. His recent passing is a great loss for Indonesia and its younger economists, many of whom refer to Thee as a role model. This book gathers together 14 of Thee’s published papers that were scattered elsewhere, making it a valuable collection for readers seeking to understand the chronology and dynam-ics of Indonesia’s economic development since the 1940s.

The book divides the author’s papers into four categories, the irst three of which focus on important episodes in Indonesia’s economic progression: (a) the early independence period, in the 1950s, and the government’s initial efforts to create an economic base for the new nation; (b) the Soeharto era (1967–98), and the chronology of how the New Order regime managed to raise Indonesia’s eco-nomic status, before it was devastated by the 1997–98 Asian inancial crisis; (c) the Asian and the global inancial crises, and other recent developments in the econ -omy; and (d) Indonesia’s industrial development and competitiveness, a topic on which Thee contributed much during his career.

Perhaps the book’s central message is about the need to design economic pol-icy that creates the right incentive structures for promoting sustainable and bal-anced growth in Indonesia. The chapters clearly suggest that economic policies to enhance welfare have to be driven by economic rationale, rather than by subjec-tive elements that could contradict the objecsubjec-tives of the policies themselves. In chapters 1 and 2, for example, Thee considers the economic effects of the Benteng (Fortress) program of the 1950s, which sought to reduce the wide economic gaps between the indigenous Indonesian majority and other ethnic groups that were dominating the economy in the early stages of Indonesia’s economic development after independence. The program failed, Thee notes, because it did not recognise the need to enhance the economic know-how of many indigenous Indonesians. Instead of achieving its equalisation objective, it created rent-seekers.

Thee emphasises the importance of avoiding protectionist policies that may reduce Indonesia’s international competitiveness, reiterating his point about pro-moting economic rationale over subjectivity. His analysis in chapters 4, 5, and 6 of the opening up of Indonesia’s economy during the Soeharto era—a period of fast economic growth hampered by corruption, collusion, and nepotism, and, ultimately, by pervasive mismanagement—implicitly hints at the need to design proper incentive structures for Indonesia’s economy if its development is to be