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NEWS November 09 2001
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| The Private Sector Indonesian cement scandal The sheer relentlessness of global financial institutions’ drive to privatise was on show in Indonesia this week, as a row over a cement company threatens to destabilise the country’s debt plans. The cement company, PT Semen Padang, is part of the national company PT Semen Gresik which is due to be sold to Mexican cement manufacturer Cemex. However, Semen Padang has just been taken over by the government of the province of West Sumatra where it is based. The West Sumatra government say they will give the company back on condition that it remain under state control. They claim they want to protect local jobs, fearing ‘rationalisation’ if Semen Padang passes into foreign control – analysts claim the takeover is more the result of local politics. Either way, this seemingly minor spat is threatening to upset Indonesia’s economic future. Indonesia is currently undergoing severe debt problems and is carrying out a far-reaching program of privatisation under the orders of the World Bank and IMF to fund debt payments. In order to use privatisation to fund debt repayment, they need to sell former state-owned companies to foreign buyers – not really a recipe for long-term economic health, as the cement workers of West Sumatra apparently realise. This little incident has seen the World Bank warning the Indonesian central government to crack down on such rebelliousness by local governments, lest foreign investors get the impression that ‘Indonesia is not open for business’, as a World Bank offical put it last week. The seat of power in this equation is all too clear – a refusal of further credit from international institutions would most likely trigger another economic collapse in this country still suffering the after-effects of the 1997 South-East Asian crisis – the creditors have the central government by the balls, and despite last year’s regional autonomy laws Jakarta can still enforce its will on West Sumatra in a crisis, leaving Indonesia’s 200 million people completely at the mercy of the neo-liberal dogmas of a group of international bankers. From an international perspective, it would seem the foundations of Indonesian democracy are built on something far weaker than cement. Sources: www.thejakartapost.com http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1634000/1634156.stm Private sector around the web: Crowded wards compromise life-saving A cancer specialist at the PFI-funed Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle has claimed that crowded wards at the new hospital are a danger to patients and PFI is leading to hospitals being built ‘on the cheap’. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1628000/1628588.stm MI5 offers to spy for corporations MI5 has told some of Britain's biggest companies that it may be prepared to provide intelligence on their business partners and rivals abroad. For the first time, the security service this week openly invited representatives from industry and finance to its headquarters in Millbank, London, for a seminar called Secret Work in an Open Society. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=92810 Revolving doors – Blair aide to join BP Anji Hunter, one of Tony Blair’s closest advisors, is leaving Downing Street for a job as director of communications at BP. There is obviously no possibility of using her political connections to further the ends of her new compnay. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1644000/1644750.stm |