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Indonesia's
image worse than it deserves
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Sydney
Morning Herald
June
21, 2003
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Indonesia's image worse than it
deserves
By Matthew Moore, Herald Correspondent
in Jakarta
Indonesia has an image problem, that much is agreed. And with the
pace of war quickening in Aceh province, and the terrorist trials
rolling on in Bali, there are few signs that things are about to
get better.
Yet most influential Indonesians and resident foreigners believe
the country's international standing is much worse than it
deserves to be. This week some of them gathered at a conference
put on by a quasi-government body, the Business Solutions Centre,
to try to understand why mere mention of the word Indonesia can
send chills through many people, especially investors.
What do most Americans think of when asked about Indonesia?
"A nation in conflict, a dangerous place to live," said
James Filgo, a businessman who has lived and worked in Indonesia
for 23 years, including time at the United States embassy.
"Yes, of course it's unfair; everybody has ethnic
conflict."
John Arnold, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in
Indonesia, said that under the Soeharto regime the country had a
reputation where you could operate "as long as you didn't
mind doing business with a member of the president's family or
with one of his group of cronies".
In the five years since the fall of Soeharto, a more complex but
equally depressing image has evolved. Now the nation was perceived
as "struggling to find itself, adopting democracy but unable
to make it deliver effective government; rife with ethnic and
religious tension and conflict; a breeding ground for Islamic
extremism and most recently global terrorism".
While he did not disagree with any of these images, Mr Arnold said
that put together they had left the country with a battered
reputation, especially when it came to attracting overseas
companies.
Many countries feel they suffer from some unfair negative
stereotyping by the media, although the view of those at the
seminar seemed to be that Indonesia's problems with its reputation
went much deeper.
India's ethnic and religious disputes were treated as isolated
regional conflicts that did not unduly damage the country's
standing as a whole, Mr Arnold said. Yet the media portrayed
outbreaks of violence in Indonesia, as in Maluku, as national
problems, even if they were restricted to one province far from
where most people live.
Part of the problem was that the Government had been slow to adapt
to the realities of democratic government and a free press, and
had not yet learnt how to argue its case publicly, admit its
mistakes and then rectify them, several participants said.
Tom Clough, chief executive with the Swiss-owned cement company
Semen Cibinong, reeled off a host of areas that have caused him
problems since his firm took control of Indonesia's third-largest
cement company 18 months ago, including a confused land
registration system, double taxation, pilfering, unskilled labour,
corruption, security and adjusting to Indonesian culture.
Yet the reality of investing and working in Indonesia was little
different to elsewhere in the world, Mr Clough said.
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