"The Politics of Post-Suharto Indonesia" is a timely and useful collection of essays on Indonesia that will help readers better understand the implications of the recent elections and the extraordinary challenges facing Indonesians as they try to recover from the economic tsunami unleashed in Bangkok in July 1997. These five essays, four by U.S. specialists on Indonesia and one by a prominent Japanese Indonesia hand, survey the generally unfamiliar terrain of Indonesia's political economy. They succeed in presenting a succinct and accessible analysis.
John Bresnan, an influential Indonesian specialist in the United States, reconstructs the evolving U.S. and IMF policies and interventions aimed at stabilizing the Indonesian economy from October 1997 until the end of Suharto's rule in May 1998. In his opinion, the oft-criticized IMF policies were probably the best that could have been hoped for under the circumstances.
For Bresnan, the crisis and policy disarray that ensued suggests the need for more expertise among policymakers on Indonesia and indeed any country in which a significant intervention is required. In addition, he raises concerns about the vulnerabilities generated by volatile short-term capital flows and asserts that, "Private capital markets are not self-correcting without potential costs that are unacceptable in the new global community."
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