为什么印尼无法成为一个主要的经济强国？ [美国媒体]

What's holding Indonesia back from becoming a major economic power?

为什么印尼无法成为一个主要的经济强国？



Vladimir Prostran, passionate about Indonesian cultural diversity
Answered Tue
Thank you for the request.
Indonesia is a great country with amazing potential, but I think there are several issues that are holding it back.

泻药。印尼是个伟大的国家，有着巨大的潜力，但是我认为有几个因素制约着印尼的发展。

Geography. Indonesia consists of about 17 000 islands many of which are connected only by boat or air. This means that infrastructure is more difficult and more expensive to develop.

地理。印尼由17000个岛屿组成，很多只能通过飞机和船只连接。这意味着基建很难发展，也更加昂贵。



Corruption. In Indonesia the corruption has reached such scale that politicians and state officials caught in it try to spin it by calling it “Gratification” (Gratifikasi). Billions of dollars in Indonesia are being stolen this way from the people every year. The anti-corruption commission (KPK) is doing a good job, but this issue in Indonesia is so big that I don’t think the current number of people in KPK is enough to fight this. KPK needs many more people and a much larger budget.

腐败。在印尼，腐败规模如此之大，以至于政客和官员称之为“奖励金”。印度人民的大量钱财就是以这种方式被窃取了。反腐败委员会做了很好的工作，但是这个问题在印尼太过严重，我认为该委员会现在的人员规模还不足以对抗之。反腐败委员会需要更多的人员和资金。

Disrespect of entrepreneurship. In Indonesia many parents actively discourage their children from starting their own business - they want their children to work in the government because it’s a safe position and will allow them to get important connections (and more). While the local governments claim they want to protect small Indonesian businesses, they often extort money from them and do nothing to help them develop - unfortunately Indonesian entrepreneurs can only count on themselves.

不尊重企业家精神。在印尼，很多父母积极阻止自己孩子创业，他们想让孩子在政府部门工作，因为稳定，还能获得重要的关系等等。虽然地方政府称他们会保护小型企业，但是经常勒索钱财，不帮助他们发展，所以印尼企业家只能靠自己。



In my opinion, the single greatest obstacle that stops Indonesia from becoming a major economic power is still an ‘extractive economy’ in the sense introduced by Professor Acemoglu in his famous work Why Nations Fail. Indonesia is, to some extent, an extractive economy. A lot of our wealth is controlled by people whose self-interest is to secure the wealth they have accumulated through decades of corruption.

在我看来，印尼无法成为主要经济强国的最大障碍是它依然是一个“萃取经济”，这是阿西莫格鲁教授在他的《国家衰弱之谜》中提出来的。印尼从某种程度上而言是个萃取经济体。我们的很多财富被一些人控制着，而这些人的目的就是保住自己几十年来因贪污而积累起来的财富。

The dethronement of Soeharto was a turning point for Indonesia. Before 1998, Indonesia may call itself a Republic, but in reality, it was a Kingdom. Soeharto possessed absolute power, and he did with the country what he wished. His rule was virtually unchallenged for a long time. In 1998, Soeharto faced a choice. Yes, there were economic crisis and students were taking to the street. But as far as a man in his position was concerned, these are mere trivial issues. The economic crisis wasn’t an Indonesian-exclusive issue. It was a global economic crisis, and eventually, the cycle will turn and things would get better. Soeharto still had the full backing of all state apparatus, especially the Army. He simply needs to either negotiate with the students and try to defuse the situation or even used force and he could very well keep his position as a president. But he has also been old, and was rumored to be seriously ill. He made a conscious choice: he would avoid a potential insurgency by stepping down peacefully and quietly… with certain conditions, that is. He gets to keep everything. His family and loyal supporters will not be purged, and he agreed to support the new administration.

苏哈托的下台对印尼而言是个转折点。在1998年之前，印尼称自己为共和国，但现实是它是个王国。苏哈托拥有绝对的权力，在国家统治上为所欲为。他的规则很长时间都几乎没有受到挑战。1998年，苏哈托面临了一个选择。是的，发生了经济危机，学生走上街头。但是对于他这种地位的人而言，这些都是小事情。经济危机不是印尼独有的。是全球性的经济危机，最终，事情总会转好。苏哈托依然拥有所有国家机关的支持，特别是军队。他可以和学生协商以平息事件，或者直接动用军队保留自己的总统地位。但是他也老了，据说严重患病。于是他作出决定：他要和平安静的下台以防止潜在暴乱的发生。但是有一些前提条件，就是他依然保留所有东西，他的家人以及忠诚支持者不会被迫害，而且他同意支持新政府。



I’m a cautious optimist. Despite the existence of this elite ruling class, Indonesia continues to chug along like some kind of unstoppable beast. The anticorruption laws got passed, then a bunch of corruptors got arrested, transparency goes up, efficiency goes up, and public awareness and democracy get better…

我是个谨慎的乐观主义者。尽管存在着这个精英统治阶级，印尼还是继续大步向前。反腐败法律获得通过，一大批腐败者被逮捕，透明性提高，效率提高，公共意识和民主变得更好。