Indonesia

Abstract

This article examines the dynamics surrounding Indonesia's performance vis-à-vis turnaround between independence in 1949 and the late 1990s, as well as the role of donors in it. Indonesia's performance regarding turnaround has reflected a variety of factors including the orientations, abilities and political skills of the country's political leaders; struggles between the main social and organisational forces within the country and the emergence of new social forces; the nature of the country's geopolitical and geoeconomic environment; and 'chance' factors such as economic shocks. Donors contributed to the process of initiating turnaround in the 1960s and 1970s through the provision of economic policy advice and much-needed finance but they also contributed to the process of reversal by encouraging the pattern of financial sector reform that contributed to the economic crisis in the late 1990s.