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The Modern Political Economy
New York
1993
I am grateful to many people for their contributions to this study. I am indebted to a number of individuals associated with the Ford Foundation for making possible my extended residence in Indonesia and my acquaintance with a wide range of its national elite. I wish to thank three by name. Frank J. Miller was the representative of the foundation in Indonesia under whom I served as assistant representative from November 1961 to June 1965. David E. Bell and McGeorge Bundy were, respectively, the executive vice president and president of the foundation under whom I served as representative in Indonesia from July 1969 to June 1973. They also were responsible for my subsequent appointment as head of the office for Asia and the Pacific, which made possible my continuing close acquaintance with Indonesia from 1973 to 1981. Much of what I have learned about Indonesia is a result of the confidence these three demonstrated in me over a period that spanned more than two decades.
I also wish to express my gratitude to two colleagues at the East Asian Institute of Columbia University, James W. Morley and Gerald L. Curtis—both long-time professors of the university and directors of the East Asian Institute—for the friendship, encouragement, and support that made my work on this study possible since 1982. To the latter I am also indebted for his having first suggested the general structure this study has taken.
My principal thanks are directed to the scores of members of the Indonesian elite who granted me interviews, in some cases repeatedly, over a period of years. They were unfailingly generous in their efforts to enlighten me, even on matters they had reason to find personally painful. It is a source of great regret to me that I have not felt able to quote any of them by name. No interviewee ever asked my intention on this point. Many had known me for years; others had been introduced to me by individuals who had known me for years. Consequently, all or almost all had every reason to expect me to honor the confidentiality of their remarks. At the same time, even individuals I was meeting for the first time sometimes surprised me by the directness of their comments, especially those aimed at the president. Because it is against the law in Indonesia for citizens to criticize their head of state, I was in a quandary. I had no wish to place any individual at risk. Yet I could not possibly know when a source could be named without possible danger to the individual. Torn between my duty to sources and readers, I concluded that I must protect the former.
Several individuals read and commented on portions of the manuscript in draft form: Malcolm Gillis, Sidney Jones, Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, J. A. C. Mackie, Leon Mears, Muthiah Alagappa, Wid-jojo Nitisastro, Mohammad Sadli, the late Soedjatmoko, Hadi Soesas-tro, and Harry Tjan. I am deeply grateful for their critiques of my interpretation of events. I hasten to add that none is in any way responsible for the final manuscript; all errors of judgment that remain are my own.
The staff of the Ford Foundation in Jakarta performed valuable services during my many visits in connection with this study; I am particularly indebted to Utje Lekatompessy, Adnan Madewa, Lucy Sundjaja, and Nani Supolo. In addition, William Fuller and Jennifer Beckett made several of my visits to Jakarta immeasurably more pleasant by taking me in as a guest in their home. Several graduate students of Columbia University—Jeff Benz, Henry Carey, Lorien French, David Kim, Timothy O'Shea, Sara Robertson, and Jonathan Stromseth—assisted me in my research. So did Jeffry Maskovsky and my daughter, Joan Bresnan. Takeshi Kokubu translated the Japanese press for chapter 6. Aysha Pande assisted in word processing. Rita Bernhard was my copyeditor at Columbia University Press. Financial support for my research and writing came from a variety of sources, notably the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Henry Luce Foundation; I wish to thank in particular Russell Philips and Terrence Lautz of their respective staffs for their encouragement and support.
Finally, I wish to thank my elder children, Patricia, Mark, and Peter, for the sacrifices they made during my residence in Indonesia from 1969 to 1973, without which this study would not have been possible.
I have made every effort to make the text and its sources accessible to readers not acquainted with the Indonesian language. Indonesian words and phrases have been held to a minimum and have been defined when their use has been unavoidable. English language sources have been preferred when they have been available.
All names of Indonesians follow the spellings found in Apa & Siapa. Spellings otherwise conform to current usage, with the exception that titles of published materials conform to the usage of the time of publication. Translations from the Indonesian are by the author unless otherwise indicated.
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