[ Laman Ehwal Semasa ReformIS ]
Date: 24 Aug 1999
Time: 21:23:33
Remote User: -
In practice, aren't you doing what IMF- supported countries are doing? What the IMF asked us to do, to squeeze credit, that we don't do. My deputy [Anwar] followed the IMF. He increased interest rates, and we went almost bankrupt. On top of that, he cut back on government expenditure by 21 percent. Since 80 percent of our expenditures are for operations, and 20 for development, that means there will be no development. But he does these things because he's told this is the way to do it.
Don't your restructuring agencies mirror those in IMF countries? We learned all this from the Swedes, not from the IMF.
Are your capital controls a model for Asia? It can be, but most [countries] are not in a strong-enough position. We were very strong financially. We had $20 billion in reserves. But currency controls are something that people should think about as a solution to a very unstable situation. Knowing what the exchange rate is makes it easy for people to budget. Businessmen are making profits. They tell me, "You saved my life." We can keep these control on indefinitely.
You've written that Japanese occupiers were more brutal than the British, but you seem more angry at the British. Why? Under the British we didn't suffer in terms of oppression, but they looked down upon us. The [Malay] sultan was not allowed into a British club, the Lake Club in Kuala Lumpur. That kind of thing I believe is much more not only humilating, but oppressive. So that is my feeling about the British. I must say that they did a good job, too. They left us with an administrative machinery which we could use and improve upon. But after independence the Japanese were more forthcoming in bringing in investment and technology. So if the Japanese are nice today I say they are nice.
Have you laid down rules to prevent your children from being attacked for corruption, as former Indonesian president Suharto's children are? In Indonesia, it is their way of life. It is natural for them to take bribes, for example. Everything can be arranged. Here it has never been like that. I prevented my children from doing so many businesses that at one point they got fed up with me and said, "We can't do anything because you say no to this and no to that." Take a comparison between Pertamina and Petronas [Indonesia's national petrol company versus Malaysia's]. Not a single member of my family has any business with Petronas. Of course no one will believe us. Because, well, they say all these people are corrupt.