1) The challenge for Jokowi 2.0: How to revitalise the economy

2) Papua police chief visits an injured policeman in Timika

-----------------------

https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2020/01/12/the-challenge-for-jokowi-2-0-how-to-revitalise-the-economy/

1) The challenge for Jokowi 2.0: How to revitalise the economy

12 January 2020

Author: Hal Hill, ANU

Viewed in the long sweep of history, Indonesia’s first two decades of democracy have been quite remarkable.

In the late 1990s, the economy was in the midst of the one of the deepest economic crises in recent global history. The 32-year authoritarian rule of former president Suharto ended ingloriously, with no political roadmap for succession. There were various ‘Yugoslav’ scenarios of territorial disintegration. There were also ominous ethnic disputes, generating a million internally displaced citizens. Much of the modern banking sector had collapsed and public debt was spiralling.

With the benefit of hindsight, this gloom was misplaced. Indonesia has had five free and credible national elections, and robust democratic events in its more than 500 subnational tiers of government. Economic growth resumed in 2000 and has averaged 5 per cent this century. The country has weathered various storms, including the 2008–09 global financial crisis, the 2013 taper tantrums, and the end of the China-driven commodity boom. ‘Big bang’ decentralisation, which transferred major administrative authority and financial resources to the districts, is functioning. And thanks to swift and effective fiscal consolidation after the crisis, public debt is no longer a cause for concern.

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, whose legitimacy is enhanced by his lack of family dynasty, wealth and military connections, won a convincing second-term mandate in April 2019. The country is largely at peace with itself. Indonesia was not included in the now-forgotten BRICS, but its economy is doing much better than the three resource-rich members of that group.

This should be the best of times for Indonesia. But curiously, it is not.

The root of the problem is that living standards are not rising fast enough. This is because President Jokowi, like his predecessors, has not been able to implement a viable path towards accelerated economic growth.

The good news is that the macroeconomic policy framework is intact, with highly competent professionals running both the Ministry of Finance and Bank Indonesia. This now appears to be a durable feature of modern, democratic Indonesia after the bitter memories of the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis.

In practically every other area of economic policy, reform is difficult. The state is struggling to lift the performance of local governments, raise taxes to finance its ambitious spending programs, reduce inequality, and open the economy to new commercial opportunities abroad. Nor can it seem to reform the corruption-prone bureaucracy and judiciary, protect workers while creating a more employment-friendly labour market, or improve efficiency in the state enterprise sector.

The irony is that President Jokowi was returned to the palace with a ringing endorsement and this is his last opportunity to make a difference. Since he does not (yet) appear to be intent on trying to establish a family dynasty, he has nothing to lose by being politically bold.

In 2014, campaigning for his first term, he set an aspirational goal of 7 per cent economic growth. Within a month of taking office he boldly slashed the crippling fuel subsidies, freeing up fiscal space for his new spending priorities.

Two months into his second term, the growth target has not been resurrected. President Jokowi appears more cautious — opting for something approaching an all-party grand coalition government and even appointing his controversial erstwhile challenger, Prabowo Subianto, to the key defence portfolio.

But gone is any pretence at a ‘cabinet of professionals’ as he once promised. Only the occupants of the finance, research and education portfolios meet this criterion. Even the coordinating economics minister is a non-economist politician, as are ministers in the other economic portfolios such as trade, planning and investment.

Indonesia’s rainbow cabinet coalitions deliver a compliant House of Representatives, but the presence of powerful veto players inside government and the absence of a common and compelling reform narrative means that this will likely be a status quo administration. It reflects the fact that, without a strongly reforming leader — perhaps assisted by the threat of an economic crisis — the country is simply difficult to govern.

This is not to say that Jokowi is an inactive president. On the contrary, practically every day sees him inaugurating some major infrastructure project. For an infrastructure-deficit country like Indonesia this makes a lot of sense — provided the projects are subject to rigorous cost-benefit analysis, which not all of them are.

There is no greater symbol of Jokowi’s infrastructure vision than the creation of a new capital city in the remote jungles of East Kalimantan. This grand project may well be his lasting legacy. Symbolically, it also addresses the nationally cherished goal of promoting development in lagging eastern Indonesia — although it won’t contribute to resolving problems in the restive Papua provinces.

It is important to keep these challenges in perspective. Indonesia remains a functioning democracy. This ample democratic space and the vibrant civil society at least ensure that community grievances are not driven underground. Poverty is still falling. The macroeconomic policy framework, guided by able professionals, safeguards the economy in an era of global economic volatility. And Jokowi may well surprise on the upside, as he has in the past.

Indonesia’s recovery from the dark days of the late 1990s was little short of miraculous. But its economy is no longer an ‘East Asian miracle’, as the World Bank characterised it in its seminal 1993 volume.

Hal Hill is the HW Arndt Professor Emeritus of Southeast Asian Economies at The Australian National University.

This article is part of an EAF special feature series on 2019 in review and the year ahead.

————————————

https://en.antaranews.com/news/139571/papua-police-chief-visits-an-injured-policeman-in-timika

2) Papua police chief visits an injured policeman in Timika

9 hours ago

Timika, Papua (ANTARA) - Papua Police Chief Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw visited Luki, a mobile brigade personnel who survived an armed Papuan rebel group's attack but sustained a gunshot wound on his left thigh, at the Mitra Masyarakat Hospital in Timika on Sunday.

Luki was shot by several members of the notorious rebel group when he was cleaning the yard of a security post near Kenyam Airport in the capital of Nduga District on Saturday morning. The security check point is located near a forest.

Luki would be evacuated from Timika, the capital of Mimika District in Papua Province, to Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta on Sunday afternoon to get a better medical treatment.

During his visit, Waterpauw was accompanied by Mimika Police Chief Adjunct Sen.Coms.I Gusti Gede Era Adhinata and several top officers of the Papua police headquarters.

According to Fajar, a medical doctor who would accompany Luki during his evacuation from Timika to the Kramat Jati Police Hospital, Luki's health condition was good enough.

Luki is a member of the Maluku Police Headquarters' Mobile Brigade Division who has been working along with his colleagues in Papua Province since five months ago.

In December 2019, several Indonesian soldiers engaged in a gunfight with an armed Papuan group's members in the Kaliasin area, Keerom District, Papua Province, leading to death of an Indonesian army soldier.

The fallen soldier from the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea (PNG) border security task force is identified as Second Sergeant Miftakfur, according to spokesman of the XVII Cenderawasih Regional Military Command Col. Eko Daryanto.

The Papuan armed separatists engaged in repeated fire exchanges with the Indonesian military and police personnel. The rebels also killed and launched deadly attacks on civilians over the past years.

The Papua Police recorded that from early January to Dec 28, 2019, a total of 23 shooting and criminal cases involving the armed Papuan groups had claimed the lives of 10 members of the Indonesian police and military as well as 10 civilians.

The armed Papuan criminals committed such criminal acts in the administrative areas of the districts of Puncak Jaya, Jayawijaya, Mimika, and Paniai in 2019, Papua Police Chief Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw remarked on Dec 28, 2019.

Acknowledging this grim reality, Waterpauw's predecessor, Inspector General Rudolf A. Rodja, stated that security disturbances, fueled by the rebels, remain a tenacious challenge for Indonesia's security apparatuses in Papua.

Related news: Indonesian soldier in Papua loses life in shoot-out
Related news: Sorong police's probe ongoing into airport's attackers
Related news: During 2019, Papua police handle 23 cases of armed Papuan groups

Reporter: Evarianus S, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Sri Haryati

———————