In Reply to: Was it really foreign investment posted by Fiona on Friday, 21. October 2005 at 15:44 Bali Time:
do you use the gross amount, or the number of blessings after tax?
Foreign investment didn't change everything by itself, but it was a major weapon in the takeover of the control of Indonesian resources.
Download (with kazaa, or whatever file share program you use) a John Pilger documentary called "The New Rulers of the World" for a good account of how Suharto and big business, with the aid of foreign powers, managed to ensure the vast wealth of Indonesia would all flow to a small group of people.
John Perkin's book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" has a section on how the World Bank shafted Indonesia while loaning them money for the electricity grid.
It's not the only factor, but it is a huge one.
As far as being in constant contact with an alluring neighbour goes... most of the portrayals of Westerners on Indonesian TV are of people living in huge houses with a couple of cars and all sorts of other goodies. Even in the west we rarely see realistic portrayals of the vast number of Americans and Australians who live in abject poverty. In Indonesia they don't see it at all. They assume all westerners are rich by western standards, let alone Indonesian standards. Which must confuse the hell out of them since so many movies show robberies and muggings -- like, they have all this and they want more?
And on your final point... you may have been born in the 20th century, but you have lived to see IR return to the 1900's. Please don't use the word "reforms" to refer to IR and tax changes. Reform means "to enact a positive change". Not all changes are reforms, no matter what language shrubby uses.
All help is good, but not all help is equal. Australia's billion dollars of tsunami "aid" will have some benefits in Aceh. But it could have done infinitely more good if half of it wasn't a loan (to a country with more foreign debt than it can handle), and if it didn't go almost exclusively to Australian companies. That's the big con. With most foreign aid and IMF/World Bank loans, the money rarely leaves the country of origin. Australia has effectively subsidised Australian businesses to the tune of a billion dollars, half of which will be paid by Indonesia somewhere down the track.
Which makes it even more important to understand where your money goes after it leaves your hand. If your intention is to help the Balinese, it's pointless spending money in a place that will send it overseas or to the Suharto family and their cronies. Even litle things like buying drinks and cigarettes from a warung instead of Circle-K can add up to a huge difference if everyone does it.