INDONESIA’S PROBLEMS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28267, 3 May 1957, Page 2

INDONESIA’S PROBLEMS

Address By Professor

McCaskill

Some of the problems which faced Indonesia since the war and the gaining of independence were: an administration over-staffed for its task; a unitary instead of a federal system of government with the result that power was centred at Jakarta; government salaries were low, consequently corruption was inevitable, said Professor L. W. McCaskill in an address last evening on Indonesia to a meeting of the Christchurch Area Group of the Pan-Pacific and South-east Asia Women’s Association.

The Government received most of its revenue on import duties, some of which were as high as 200 per cent., and duties to a lesser extent on exports, said Professor McCaskill. The Government opposed the plantation system and the companies were not given security of tenure so that replanting was falling offi There was a shortage of skilled tradesmen for industrialisation and because of the attitude of the Government there was a lack of foreign capital. The Army exercised considerable sway. Until about 1900 only the nobility and the children of higher officials received an education. There were 60 races, who spoke 200 different languages with 1200 dialects. The population was 82,000,000, of whom 70,000,000 were Moslems and about 5,000,000 were Christians. The history of the country went back for thousands of years and the people had contact with India and China many hundreds of years before the arrival of westerners. The Dutch arrived about 1600, but their conquest was not completed until 1905 when they gained control of northern Sumatra. ’ “There are more Christians at worship each Sunday morning in Indonesia than in Australia and New Zealand put together,” said Professor McCaskill. Indonesia was the fifth most populous country in the world and consisted of 3000 islands in a 3000-mile-long archipelago. Only Russia, the United States, Canada and perhaps Brazil had' greater natural wealth. Java, which was about half the size of New Zealand, had a population of 60,000,000 and was the most over-populated country in the world. The Government planned to move about 15,000,000 people from Java to Sumatra at the rate of 500,000 a year.

“Indonesians in general are a smiling, hard-working people with many fine qualities and they have come a long way since they were granted independence in August. 1945. Apart from Australia, Indonesia is New Zealand’s nearest neighbour in the Pacific,” said Professor McCaskill.