Suharto
In “Foes Push Indonesia’s Suharto to Act or Quit” (Jan. 11), you describe Indonesia’s economic crisis and the reactions of the international community. You refer to “intense criticism of President Suharto’s expansionary budget,” the need to reduce “high tariffs and government regulation” and to end “costly subsidies.” That seems to describe an Indonesian government that is out of control and wrecking the country’s economy.
In the same issue, James Flanigan (Business) informs us that in markets’ judgment, government is good. As best I can make out the somewhat tortured logic, it is that since government action is required to improve the Indonesian economy, that is a positive statement about the role of govern- ment--never mind that the action required by that government is to be less expansionary, reducing high tariffs and government regulation and ending subsidies. I must have missed something.
STEVE BLACK
Manhattan Beach
* Your profile of Suharto mistakenly states that Indonesia’s 1975 invasion of East Timor prompted “protests from the United States” (Jan. 10). Nothing could be further from the truth. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were in Jakarta the two days prior to the invasion, meeting with Suharto. It is well established that the U.S. gave Suharto the green light to invade.
The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in economic and military assistance to Indonesia since 1975.
Amnesty International reports that Indonesia’s invasion and ongoing occupation have resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 East Timorese, about one-third of the pre-invasion population. Fortunately, there is growing pressure within the international community for Indonesia to end its illegal occupation, one condemned in 10 separate U.N. resolutions.
The current turmoil in Indonesia suggests that the end of the Suharto regime is near. As such, that is as good a time as ever for President Clinton to end U.S. support for Indonesia’s brutal colonial project in East Timor and put to rest one of the most shameful chapters in the history of U.S. foreign policy in the process.
MIZUE AIZEKI
Los Angeles
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