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Indonesia's Unruly Economy
EFL An incident of bullying, threats and violence on a basketball court at Jakarta's top school for expatriate children has brought Southeast Asia's biggest economy firmly back into the international spotlight, for all the wrong reasons. Widespread media exposure of the violent rampage was a major embarrassment to the government, since the alleged perpetrator in the April 17 incident at the Jakarta International School was not some wayward, unruly foreign teenager but Theo Toemion, chairman of the powerful Investment Coordinating Board. Toemion reportedly attacked a 14-year-old student referee, and parents of other children, over a dispute involving his seven-year-old son. The assault left an American oil company executive - a parent of one of the children in the game - with a broken nose. The executive, fearing violence, has since left Indonesia with his family. Another oil company employee was hit in the back of the head, requiring several stitches. Toemion has claimed his outbreak was an act of nationalism because he believes his son was treated unfairly due to racism and discrimination. Executives from major US multinationals - ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Unocal and Nike - were among those trying to stem the violence, which probably partly explains the response from the US Embassy's deputy chief of mission, W. Lewis Amselem: "We are thinking of forbidding him from visiting America." Toemion, who has held the post since June 2001, has since told the local media that he was resigning, but added that he was "very irritated" by media reports on the incident. A recent report in the International Herald Tribune cited Indonesian officials as confirming that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had already planned to replace Toemion, an appointee of previous president Megawati Sukarnoputri, with his own appointee before the incident occurred... The government also looks eager to try put the Toemion embarrassment behind it as quickly as possible. Presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng, announcing that the president had issued a decree on the appointment of Mohammad Luthfi as the new chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board, said the change was based on professional concerns and also to give a "new spirit to the investment environment". Posted by: Pappy 2005-05-13 |
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