http://www.insideindonesia.org/feature/the-rich-in-indonesia-10041415
The rich in Indonesia
How do they live? How do they make their money? How good are they for
Indonesia?
Gerry van Klinken
Indonesian opulence: The 62-year old lawyer Warsito Sanyoto and
his
family. See story by Ben Knapen
Ahmad "deNy" Salman ([email protected])
This is the first time Inside Indonesia has run a whole edition on The
Rich. The poor have obviously been more prominent in our pages because there
are still so many of them in Indonesia. But the few with money have a lot more
clout in this world. And let's face it, we all enjoy the voyeurism of peeping
into their lives. So how do you do a whole edition on the rich?
We first wanted to take a look at how they live as human beings. Deasy
Simanjuntak's light-hearted story about wedding preparations might ring bells
with anyone who shares family with social climbers. Ben Knapen's peek into the
home of an ostentatiously wealthy lawyer - beautifully illustrated by Ahmad
deNy Salman - puts on display an entire class of new money. Some of their
lifestyle excesses produce serious health hazards, as Madarina Julia shows in
her piece on the growing childhood obesity epidemic.
Secondly we wanted to find out how they made their money. The
overwhelming impression is that good political connections are a must for any
aspiring tycoon in Indonesia. Akiko Morishita's portrait of a Kalimantan timber
baron is a fabulous example, which incidentally also shows that you do not have
to leave the provinces to get rich. When it comes to paying taxes, the rich get
an easy ride from officials. Indonesia Corruption Watch advisor Yanuar Rizky
explains to Simon Butt in detail how this is done. However, not all our authors
agreed connections are still essential. Christian Chua argues that the ease
with which many Chinese tycoons survived the fall of Suharto proves that their
money alone is enough protection in today's rampant capitalism.
Thirdly we stood back and put the rich back into their Indonesian
context. Christian von Luebke demonstrates that Indonesia is a much more
unequal society than official statistics have long pretended. It might be as
unequal as China, which is now experiencing serious tensions as a result. Gary
Gartenberg discovers the cultural roots of these tensions in a place millions
of Indonesians still love but few outsiders bother to read - the martial arts
comic strip of the pre-electronic era. Much about this stereotypical image of
rich villains is unfair, of course. We would have loved an article on one of
the wealthy but selfless patrons of the arts for example, but couldn't manage
it. Nevertheless, that the gap between rich and poor is bad for Indonesia
remains a basic truth. No one could make that clearer than Jeffrey Winters, in
his powerful lead article entitled 'Who will tame the oligarchs?'
As always, a word of thanks to all our contributors, illustrators,
editors, reviewers, proofreaders, committee members, webmaster, and other
workers, most behind the scenes. Believe it or not, each one is a volunteer. I
hope you enjoy what we have produced.
Gerry van Klinken ([email protected]) is this edition's guest editor. He
is a senior researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian
and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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