SAY NO TO IMF

No to the IMF plan says leading Indonesian dissident

Mounting pressure forced the Indonesian government to delay bringing in key elements of its IMF restructuring package on April 1. The budget did not include the controversial fuel subsidy cut, nor the promised wage rise for senior civil servants.

Budiman Sujatmiko, chairperson of the People’s Democratic Party (PRD), who is about to tour Australia, said the government’s partial back down highlights the elite's nervousness about the political repercussions of the austerity program.

"The elite has good reason to be worried. On April 1, thousands of students and workers across Indonesia rallied against the government-IMF plans to deregulate the economy. And this is just the beginning", Sujatmiko said.

While the IMF and Jakarta quibble about how to deal with Indonesia’s economic crisis, the economic and social problems are becoming worse, said Sujatmiko.

"This year, there's been a big rise in unemployment; inflation has increased to 29%; there has been an increase in public service costs by between 30-75% and there have been many more strikes by workers and protests among small farmers."

The four major parties in government agree with the conditions attached to the IMF’s US$5 billion loan.

The PRD is the only political party to oppose it. Its alternative economic program to deal with the budget deficit which has been publicity by Indonesia’s biggest circulation newspaper Kompas, includes:

* end the foreign debt (total foreign debt is US$200 billion with private debt making up US$65 billion); end funding for insolvent banks;

*nationalise Suharto's assets in Indonesia and abroad (estimated at US$16 million); nationalise the military's businesses and reduce the military budget;

* stop bureaucrats' overseas travel; and

* clean up corruption in the public sector and government bureaucracy not by privatising public services but by trying and charging corrupt officials.