Fedhly Averouss Bey, Jakarta – The International Non-Government Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) believes that the economic team in the Indonesian United Cabinet of newly inaugurated President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) will side with donor and creditor nations. The organisation says that the track record of the ministers who have been placed in economic posts is poor as many have been implicated in the Bank Indonesia Bank Liquidity (BLBI) program scandal.

This view was expressed by the INFID executive secretary Binny Buchori in press release received by Detik.com on Saturday October 23. “This situation conflicts with SBY’s promises during his election campaign in which [he said he would] strive for an Indonesia free of foreign debt and free from cooperation with the IMF”, said Buchori.

According to INFID, by maintaining figures who’s track records are dubious it will conflict with SBY determination to fully eliminate corruption and hunt down those who have stolen the people’s money.

“INFID is convinced that SBY’s economic team fully believes in the principles of the Washington Consensus (privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation) as one of the keys to economic recovery. These are the same principles forced on the Indonesian economy by the IMF which is still to recover”, she continued.

INFID is recommending therefore that Yudhoyono and Vice-president Jusuf Kalla and their economic team not prioritise the interests of donor countries and the international financial institutions over the interests of more than 200 million ordinary Indonesian people.

“It is important for SBY to instruct his ministers to immediately announce to the public its program for the first 100 days [in office] with an approach based on measured results as well as creating mechanisms to accommodate the public’s grievances so that damaging policies can be detected beforehand and not worsen [the situation]”, said Buchori. (fab)

[Translated by James Balowski.]