New article on Indonesian economy

Now available online (subscription required)

M. Chatib Basri and Arianto A. Patunru, 2006. Survey of Recent Developments. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 42(3): 295-319

I believe the print issue will be available next week.

The Politics of Rice 19

"Importing rice is a very easy thing to do, but that is too simplistic, it can't attack the root of the problem of poverty in Indonesia".

That is the song the week.

Why is it if something is easy, we should go for the difficult ones? Welcome to the if-you-can-make-it-difficult-why-make-it-easy society.

The Politics of Rice 18

As I said here, poverty increase in Indonesia has lots to do with the rice price. The World Bank report is in line with this claim, as reported in the media.

What is quite interesting is the tone-change of Kompas. Yesterday it ran this headline -- unusual for Kompas. Today, it changes tone back to its populist-leaning style. Yes, with the usual heroes quoted, of course.

Update: More from Kompas today. So, when an analysis is not like what you want, you can call it invalid. How cool.