I would like to talk about the difference between the Indonesian media and the Japanese media. Today in Indonesia, the Bank Century scandal is causing huge controversy. Yudhoyono's opponents, who are jealous of his popularity, are working hard to bring down his technocrats such as Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani. They created an inquiry committee and summoned Boediono and Sri Mulyani, even though they summoned many people related to the scandal, they seemed to focus only on Boediono and Sri Mulyani, and damaged their reputation.
However, many Indonesian newspapers, seem to support Boediono and Sri Mulyani. They said the committee members only criticized the procedures for the bailout decision by Sri Mulyani and Boediono and the amount of money that was paid out, instead of investigating banking crimes at Bank Century. For example, The Jakarta Post headline on Dec. 2 says "Boediono, Mulyani: The wrong targets in Century scandal".
When I read this article, I was really impressed by the Indonesian media because Japanese media has a very different approach. As you know, former Prime Minister Koizumi implemented substantial reforms and led Japan into an economic recovery during his term. In my opinion, his political way of thinking was similar to that of Yudhoyono.
Both these politicians show deep understanding of globalization, so they nominated economic specialists for important posts. Koizumi nominated Takenaka as finance minister during his term, who was an economist like Sri Mulyani and Boediono. Koizumi and Takenaka also faced political attacks from power-hungry and anti-globalization politicians.
The media has not denied such anti-Koizumi and Takenaka's stances, so the majority of Japanese believe it. By the way, the Japan's economic survey clearly showed different data from such stances. It said the Koizumi government had helped reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, but the media published only short articles and gave this subject very little coverage.
Therefore, all governments after Koizumi have gone in the opposite direction. They don't work hard to reform Japan. As a result, our economy has declined. Our stock market is now the same as 26 years ago, around 10,000. Our highest stock price was 38,915 in 1989, so for 20 years, our stock prices have continued to decline.
When Koizumi was Japan's prime minister, these miserable stock prices had risen to nearly 18,000 because of his reforms, but after he resigned, our stocks started declining again. Japan is now in deep recession. Many people have lost their jobs and cannot find new jobs. However, many Japanese people did not realize that the reforms that Koizumi carried out were very important for the recovery of our economy.
Finally, I would like to talk about the current Japanese political situation. Two leaders in Democratic Party are implicated in money scandals. One is Prime Minister Hatoyama, who received a huge amount of money from his mother through dirty tricks. The other is Ozawa, secretary-general of the Democratic Party, a man who controls the party.
I think if Indonesia forced Sri Mulyani and Boediono to resign, the country would lose the people who could do away with the damaging old customs. As a result, corrupt politicians would regain their power. I hope Boediono and Sri Mulyani will continue to hold their positions as vice president and finance minister. Indonesia should not make a mistake like Japan did.
Yuko Nakahata
Jakarta
