00074910012331337763
Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
ISSN: 0007-4918 (Print) 1472-7234 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbie20
Special Issue in Honour of Thee Kian Wie
Introduction
Hal Hill , H. W. Arndt & Moh. Sadli
To cite this article: Hal Hill , H. W. Arndt & Moh. Sadli (2000) Special Issue in Honour of
Thee Kian Wie Introduction, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 36:1, 5-11, DOI:
10.1080/00074910012331337763
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074910012331337763
Published online: 21 Aug 2006.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 65
View related articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cbie20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RA JA ALI HA JI
TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU]
Date: 19 January 2016, At: 22:03
by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19 J
Special Issue
in honour of
Thee Kian Wie
Guest Editor: Hal Hill
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
Vol 36 No 1, April 2000, pp. 5–11
Special Issue in Honour of
Thee Kian Wie
INTRODUCTION
Hal Hill
Australian National University
This special issue of the BIES is in honour of Dr Thee Kian Wie, one of
Indonesia’s foremost social scientists for more than three decades,
generous colleague and friend, and tireless supporter of the Bulletin and
its objectives.
It is hard to think of anyone in Indonesia who has had such a deep
commitment to scholarly ideals and values for so long, certainly in the
Economics profession. While most of his fellow economists have opted
for more lucrative careers in business, or sought power and influence in
the government, or become public commentators, Thee Kian Wie has
dedicated himself to a life of (in Professor Sadli’s words) ‘relative poverty’
as a full-time academic researcher.
Several features of Thee Kian Wie’s professional and personal life,
some alluded to in the following pages by Professors Arndt and Sadli,
deserve mention in this introduction.
The first is his academic productivity. Since graduating from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1969, he has produced a continuous
stream of high quality academic output: at latest count, he is author and/
or editor of 14 books and more in the pipeline, and author of about 60
journal articles and book chapters, and countless reports and shorter
notes. His publications have appeared in Indonesia and all over the world
(the latter feature, sadly, somewhat unusual for Indonesian scholars).
About half of his output has appeared in English, which it might be noted
is really his third language (behind Dutch and Indonesian).
A second feature is the breadth of his scholarly interests. These include
economic history, industrialisation, foreign investment, technology, small
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
6
Introduction and Foreword
enterprise, and regional development. In all these fields, he would be
regarded as Indonesia’s foremost scholar, or at least one of its leading
authorities. Particular mention should be made of economic history, which
he has almost single-handedly kept alive in recent decades. Of course,
Thee Kian Wie is an intellectual-at-large, in the best of traditions, with
amazingly wide reading and research interests. Anybody who has been
fortunate to share a dinner table or a plane trip with him will attest to
this!
Third, there is his mix of academic and public policy/commentary
interests. From his far-from-salubrious LIPI office, Kian Wie has always
been remarkably public-spirited, acceding to a seemingly endless round
of public speaking commitments, seminars, interviews and commentaries
in the quality media. Indonesia apparently has an unlimited supply of
public commentators, especially during zaman reformasi, but few if any
have been able to achieve Thee Kian Wie’s mix of public commentary
and academic endeavour.
A fourth feature that deserves comment is his commitment to high
principles. This has many manifestations, but one obvious one was his
evaluation of the Soeharto regime. Here he managed to be balanced, in
an environment in which it was not always easy to achieve balance: he
recognised the regime’s development achievements, but also grew
increasingly critical of its greed and arrogance in later years. He thus
chided—always politely and gently—both those who dismissed the
regime’s economic and social progress, and those (this writer included!)
whose assessments he considered too favourable.
Fifth, there is his diligence and generosity. From helping to start the
careers of junior researchers, to responding to requests for assistance and
advice from all quarters, and to commenting on the work of colleagues,
Kian Wie is one of the most unselfish individuals I have ever encountered.
We at BIES have benefited from his selfless devotion to scholarly causes
in so many ways—the long-running and highly successful ‘Recollections’
series (in which he has always been the key organiser and one of the
interviewers), advice on manuscripts, pointing us towards promising new
scholars, general moral support and encouragement, and much else.
Sixth, Thee Kian Wie has played an enormously important role as a
bridge between the Indonesian and foreign research communities. Partly
because he replies to correspondence more quickly than anyone else in
Jakarta (indeed, in his punctuality he rivals Heinz Arndt’s legendary
standards!), but mainly because he is so knowledgable and helpful, his
LIPI office and Cempaka Putih residence sometimes resemble a railway
station (with the attraction of the latter locale enhanced by the warm
hospitality of Tjoe and Marcel). From ambassadors, senior government
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Hal Hill, H.W. Arndt and Moh. Sadli
7
officials, and professors to junior researchers embarking on field work,
hundreds of foreigners have benefited from Kian Wie’s wise counsel, in
the process developing a much deeper appreciation of Indonesia’s
economy and its always complex political economy equations.
Finally, no introduction would be complete without reference to Thee
Kian Wie the human being: his warmth, humility, personal generosity,
and self-deprecating sense of humour. He is one of those rare individuals
who combines an admirable mix of nationalism and internationalism.
He has never lived abroad for any length of time, apart from his graduate
education and shorter stints in Australia and The Netherlands. No doubt
he could have done if he so wished. But even during hard times, his
sense of national commitment bound him to Jakarta. ‘I’ve been well
treated’, he is fond of saying (a reference to the opportunity he received
for graduate education abroad), and that experience has ever since
predisposed him to a life of public service at home.
Equally, as one of those rare universal citisens, he is just as comfortable
with on-site expositions of Dutch and South African histories (to mention
just two examples from this writer’s first-hand experience) as with
gossiping about Jakarta politics (Kian Wie loves to gossip, but never
maliciously), and talking about friends and family.
Special mention needs to be made of his ethnicity. As Professor Sadli
mentions, he could not aspire to a ‘top government job’ throughout the
Soeharto era. Perhaps, although given his scholarly disposition it is not
obvious that he would have wanted one anyway. Unlike the majority of
Sino-Indonesians, he never changed his name. ‘Why should I? I’m ethnic
Chinese’, he would reply if asked. But, always a voice for ethnic tolerance,
and ever alert to Indonesia’s delicate ethnic divide, he is frequently critical
of his ethnic brethren. ‘Indonesian Chinese don’t realise how well off
they are’, he has frequently lamented. He has been particularly critical of
those in the Chinese business community who are not in his view
cognisant of their broader societal responsibilities, especially including a
sensitivity towards legitimate pribumi aspirations for socio-economic
advancement.
Thee Kian Wie likes to refer to himself as a ‘marginal man’—not a
reference to his general sympathy for neo-classical economics (albeit
heavily qualified in important respects), but to his membership of an
ethnic minority, numbering less than 4% of Indonesia’s population, and
to his first language (Dutch), now probably spoken fluently by less than
1% of the population.
Yet any notion that he is on the margins is of course plainly ridiculous.
Kian Wie is justly famous, both in Indonesia and abroad. As he approaches
his 65th birthday, and formal retirement from LIPI (of which, incidentally,
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Introduction and Foreword
8
he is its longest-serving staff member), this volume celebrates his life
and achievements to date. It is introduced by two of his closest friends—
one might even say intellectual mentors—and it features contributions
from his friends and admirers that reflect the diversity and depth of Thee
Kian Wie’s intellectual interests and scholarly ties around the world. This
is not of course the end of the story, but rather the opening of a new
chapter in his life. Insyah Allah, Thee Kian Wie will be with us for many
years to come, writing interesting papers, and enriching our lives with
his friendship, enthusiasm, and infectious sense of humour.
On behalf of the Editor, Board members, everyone else associated
with BIES past and present, the contributors, and Tjoe and Marcel, selamat
membaca!
FOREWORD
H.W. Arndt
Australian National University
Thee Kian Wie, perhaps the most productive Indonesian academic
economist of the past generation, has been and remains a close friend
and collaborator of the ANU’s Indonesia Project and all its staff.
He tells me that in 1967 or 1968 he heard me lecture at the University
of Wisconsin in Madison where he was studying for his PhD (with
Soedradjad as his room mate). But my first personal contact with him
was in 1980 when he came to Canberra for a week to discuss a survey of
joint ventures in Indonesia on which he was working. In the following
years, he visited ANU quite often, in l983 for a year as Visiting Fellow,
and on my many visits to Jakarta I invariably saw him (and his charming
wife Tjoe), sometimes at their house, sometimes at LIPI for an arranged
seminar. He has been head of PEP, the economic and development
research centre of LIPI, since 1986, a post from which he will retire in
May this year, at age 65.
Thee (as he allows me to call him) is an ethnic-Chinese Indonesian
who does not speak Chinese but has had the courage to retain his Chinese
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Hal Hill, H.W. Arndt and Moh. Sadli
9
name. He and his wife speak Dutch at home and have family connections
in Holland, but both are equally fluent in Indonesian, English and Dutch.
Thee’s scholarly work has been mainly on industrial development,
transfer of technology and direct foreign investment in Indonesia, though
much of it recently has also been on Indonesia’s economic history. His
output has been phenomenal. His CV lists six books of his own, seven
books edited by him, 30 chapters in books, and countless articles, working
papers and memoranda. His letters—well over 100 in my correspondence
file—report, year in year out, on travels, to conferences and for research,
in Singapore, USA, Japan, Netherlands, Germany, India, Australia, and
on incessant overwork. Since 1985 he has been on the Editorial Board of
BIES and from its beginning in 1987 by far the most conscientious and
helpful Corresponding Editor of my journal, Asian Pacific Economic
Literature. For a great deal of business which could not easily be done
from Canberra, such as the distribution of BIES in Indonesia, the
production of the Indonesian edition of Sicat’s Economics and translations
of my books, we relied on Thee. Special mention must be made of the
role he played in interviewing the distinguished authors of the BIES
‘Recollections’ series and editing their contributions.
Much of my correspondence with Thee has in the last two years
inevitably revolved around the terrible political and economic
developments precipitated by the Asian financial crisis. One day during
the May l998 riots, he did not dare go home and stayed overnight at his
brother’s house. In the following days, he and others guarded the
neighbourhood, ‘balding and potbellied, armed with all kinds of funny
weapons’.
As the crisis deepened, Thee became increasingly pessimistic. ‘As an
Indonesian working and living in Indonesia, I must admit that I am
looking at a lot of things happening in our country through darker glasses
than you, Hal and Ross do. Yes, maybe I and many of my colleagues here
are cycnical or skeptical about our leaders as we have seen for too long
too much corruption, too much hypocrisy, and too much double-speak’.
I must admit, in retrospect, that Thee’s judgment was better than ours.
But writing on his return to Indonesia from Haarlem last November, he
commented on the new government with restrained optimism: ‘Let us
wait and see how the new government performs in the next few years.
Let us hope for the best and be prepared for the worst’.
That is Thee Kian Wie, the proud Indonesian and judicious scholar.
We hope to continue to enjoy his company from time to time and benefit
from his insight in the years to come.
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Introduction and Foreword
10
FOREWORD
Moh. Sadli
Indonesia Forum Foundation
It is with great pleasure that I accede to the request to contribute to BIES’s
commemoration of the work of our very good and dear friend, Thee Kian
Wie, who will turn 65 and plans to retire from LIPI, the Centre for
Economic and Development Studies of the Indonesian Institute for
Sciences (PEP-LIPI), where he has worked for so many years as a very
devoted and productive researcher.
Thee Kian Wie has earned our respect through his dedication as a
research scholar. There are now many, many more PhDs in economics in
Indonesia than in my time, 30 or 40 years ago. But because the demand
for professional services is still great, from government departments,
universities, and to function as public commentators, there are relatively
few with the stamina to remain devoted academic researchers, dirtying
their hands with fact finding at the grassroots level. Many just use the
results of such work for their analysis, and to reinforce their conclusions.
Thee Kian Wie’s unique role as a serious research scholar and
economic historian is probably connected with his ethnicity. That is, he
comes from an Indonesian-Chinese background. Had he been an
indigenous Indonesian, he would certainly have landed a top government
job and become a ‘bureaucrat’ or a ‘technocrat’. That would have been
the end of his research career.
While many young educated Indonesians of Chinese origin preferred
a business career, and did financially well, Thee Kian Wie preferred to
wear the scholarly mantle of relative poverty, but having many friends
and admirers, inside and outside the country.
Of course at LIPI today there are numerous young researchers in the
social sciences and economics who have not yet reached the top rank
bureaucracy, toiling in relative obscurity and poverty, but they are also
much younger than Thee Kian Wie. Some of the more senior researchers
at LIPI, especially political scientists, have become public commentators
or ‘pundits’ during the economic and political crisis, but I am not sure
whether they can boast as long a list of solid research output and books
as Thee Kian Wie. And they are not as well known internationally.
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Hal Hill, H.W. Arndt and Moh. Sadli
11
Thee Kian Wie’s strength is in economic history and
microeconomics—industry studies, technology, the role of foreign direct
investment, entrepreneurship, small and medium enterprise, and
industry policy. He has also done important work comparing the
performance of Northeast and Southeast Asian countries, for example
focusing on SMEs (small and medium-scale enterprises) in Taiwan, Korea
and Indonesia. In this respect his work is a welcome complement to that
of the larger group of macroeconomists in the government.
In Indonesia there are barely a handful of economists who study
economic history. Most Indonesians are not interested in the ‘colonial’
past, because emotionally they are preoccupied with the creation of a
‘national economy’ in an independent Indonesia. Most Indonesians also
prefer to look into the future rather than dwell on the past. Perhaps later,
when they mature in their judgment, they will be less impatient and
recognise that the present is rooted in the past, as is the future. Culture,
institutions, attitudes and behaviour change only slowly. Yet young,
ambitious and impatient macroeconomists like to think that, if only the
‘right’ economic policies can be implemented over an extended period,
the developing Southeast Asian countries can emulate the record of the
East Asian tigers.
Another of Thee Kian Wie’s important contributions to recording
Indonesian economic history has been his role as interviewer, together
with an ANU colleague, of a number of prominent Indonesians who have
played an important role in recent history. This has included not only
members of the ‘Berkeley Mafia’, but also entrepreneurs such as Soedarpo
and Teuku Mohamad Daud.
ISSN: 0007-4918 (Print) 1472-7234 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbie20
Special Issue in Honour of Thee Kian Wie
Introduction
Hal Hill , H. W. Arndt & Moh. Sadli
To cite this article: Hal Hill , H. W. Arndt & Moh. Sadli (2000) Special Issue in Honour of
Thee Kian Wie Introduction, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 36:1, 5-11, DOI:
10.1080/00074910012331337763
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074910012331337763
Published online: 21 Aug 2006.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 65
View related articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cbie20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RA JA ALI HA JI
TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU]
Date: 19 January 2016, At: 22:03
by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19 J
Special Issue
in honour of
Thee Kian Wie
Guest Editor: Hal Hill
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
Vol 36 No 1, April 2000, pp. 5–11
Special Issue in Honour of
Thee Kian Wie
INTRODUCTION
Hal Hill
Australian National University
This special issue of the BIES is in honour of Dr Thee Kian Wie, one of
Indonesia’s foremost social scientists for more than three decades,
generous colleague and friend, and tireless supporter of the Bulletin and
its objectives.
It is hard to think of anyone in Indonesia who has had such a deep
commitment to scholarly ideals and values for so long, certainly in the
Economics profession. While most of his fellow economists have opted
for more lucrative careers in business, or sought power and influence in
the government, or become public commentators, Thee Kian Wie has
dedicated himself to a life of (in Professor Sadli’s words) ‘relative poverty’
as a full-time academic researcher.
Several features of Thee Kian Wie’s professional and personal life,
some alluded to in the following pages by Professors Arndt and Sadli,
deserve mention in this introduction.
The first is his academic productivity. Since graduating from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1969, he has produced a continuous
stream of high quality academic output: at latest count, he is author and/
or editor of 14 books and more in the pipeline, and author of about 60
journal articles and book chapters, and countless reports and shorter
notes. His publications have appeared in Indonesia and all over the world
(the latter feature, sadly, somewhat unusual for Indonesian scholars).
About half of his output has appeared in English, which it might be noted
is really his third language (behind Dutch and Indonesian).
A second feature is the breadth of his scholarly interests. These include
economic history, industrialisation, foreign investment, technology, small
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
6
Introduction and Foreword
enterprise, and regional development. In all these fields, he would be
regarded as Indonesia’s foremost scholar, or at least one of its leading
authorities. Particular mention should be made of economic history, which
he has almost single-handedly kept alive in recent decades. Of course,
Thee Kian Wie is an intellectual-at-large, in the best of traditions, with
amazingly wide reading and research interests. Anybody who has been
fortunate to share a dinner table or a plane trip with him will attest to
this!
Third, there is his mix of academic and public policy/commentary
interests. From his far-from-salubrious LIPI office, Kian Wie has always
been remarkably public-spirited, acceding to a seemingly endless round
of public speaking commitments, seminars, interviews and commentaries
in the quality media. Indonesia apparently has an unlimited supply of
public commentators, especially during zaman reformasi, but few if any
have been able to achieve Thee Kian Wie’s mix of public commentary
and academic endeavour.
A fourth feature that deserves comment is his commitment to high
principles. This has many manifestations, but one obvious one was his
evaluation of the Soeharto regime. Here he managed to be balanced, in
an environment in which it was not always easy to achieve balance: he
recognised the regime’s development achievements, but also grew
increasingly critical of its greed and arrogance in later years. He thus
chided—always politely and gently—both those who dismissed the
regime’s economic and social progress, and those (this writer included!)
whose assessments he considered too favourable.
Fifth, there is his diligence and generosity. From helping to start the
careers of junior researchers, to responding to requests for assistance and
advice from all quarters, and to commenting on the work of colleagues,
Kian Wie is one of the most unselfish individuals I have ever encountered.
We at BIES have benefited from his selfless devotion to scholarly causes
in so many ways—the long-running and highly successful ‘Recollections’
series (in which he has always been the key organiser and one of the
interviewers), advice on manuscripts, pointing us towards promising new
scholars, general moral support and encouragement, and much else.
Sixth, Thee Kian Wie has played an enormously important role as a
bridge between the Indonesian and foreign research communities. Partly
because he replies to correspondence more quickly than anyone else in
Jakarta (indeed, in his punctuality he rivals Heinz Arndt’s legendary
standards!), but mainly because he is so knowledgable and helpful, his
LIPI office and Cempaka Putih residence sometimes resemble a railway
station (with the attraction of the latter locale enhanced by the warm
hospitality of Tjoe and Marcel). From ambassadors, senior government
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Hal Hill, H.W. Arndt and Moh. Sadli
7
officials, and professors to junior researchers embarking on field work,
hundreds of foreigners have benefited from Kian Wie’s wise counsel, in
the process developing a much deeper appreciation of Indonesia’s
economy and its always complex political economy equations.
Finally, no introduction would be complete without reference to Thee
Kian Wie the human being: his warmth, humility, personal generosity,
and self-deprecating sense of humour. He is one of those rare individuals
who combines an admirable mix of nationalism and internationalism.
He has never lived abroad for any length of time, apart from his graduate
education and shorter stints in Australia and The Netherlands. No doubt
he could have done if he so wished. But even during hard times, his
sense of national commitment bound him to Jakarta. ‘I’ve been well
treated’, he is fond of saying (a reference to the opportunity he received
for graduate education abroad), and that experience has ever since
predisposed him to a life of public service at home.
Equally, as one of those rare universal citisens, he is just as comfortable
with on-site expositions of Dutch and South African histories (to mention
just two examples from this writer’s first-hand experience) as with
gossiping about Jakarta politics (Kian Wie loves to gossip, but never
maliciously), and talking about friends and family.
Special mention needs to be made of his ethnicity. As Professor Sadli
mentions, he could not aspire to a ‘top government job’ throughout the
Soeharto era. Perhaps, although given his scholarly disposition it is not
obvious that he would have wanted one anyway. Unlike the majority of
Sino-Indonesians, he never changed his name. ‘Why should I? I’m ethnic
Chinese’, he would reply if asked. But, always a voice for ethnic tolerance,
and ever alert to Indonesia’s delicate ethnic divide, he is frequently critical
of his ethnic brethren. ‘Indonesian Chinese don’t realise how well off
they are’, he has frequently lamented. He has been particularly critical of
those in the Chinese business community who are not in his view
cognisant of their broader societal responsibilities, especially including a
sensitivity towards legitimate pribumi aspirations for socio-economic
advancement.
Thee Kian Wie likes to refer to himself as a ‘marginal man’—not a
reference to his general sympathy for neo-classical economics (albeit
heavily qualified in important respects), but to his membership of an
ethnic minority, numbering less than 4% of Indonesia’s population, and
to his first language (Dutch), now probably spoken fluently by less than
1% of the population.
Yet any notion that he is on the margins is of course plainly ridiculous.
Kian Wie is justly famous, both in Indonesia and abroad. As he approaches
his 65th birthday, and formal retirement from LIPI (of which, incidentally,
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Introduction and Foreword
8
he is its longest-serving staff member), this volume celebrates his life
and achievements to date. It is introduced by two of his closest friends—
one might even say intellectual mentors—and it features contributions
from his friends and admirers that reflect the diversity and depth of Thee
Kian Wie’s intellectual interests and scholarly ties around the world. This
is not of course the end of the story, but rather the opening of a new
chapter in his life. Insyah Allah, Thee Kian Wie will be with us for many
years to come, writing interesting papers, and enriching our lives with
his friendship, enthusiasm, and infectious sense of humour.
On behalf of the Editor, Board members, everyone else associated
with BIES past and present, the contributors, and Tjoe and Marcel, selamat
membaca!
FOREWORD
H.W. Arndt
Australian National University
Thee Kian Wie, perhaps the most productive Indonesian academic
economist of the past generation, has been and remains a close friend
and collaborator of the ANU’s Indonesia Project and all its staff.
He tells me that in 1967 or 1968 he heard me lecture at the University
of Wisconsin in Madison where he was studying for his PhD (with
Soedradjad as his room mate). But my first personal contact with him
was in 1980 when he came to Canberra for a week to discuss a survey of
joint ventures in Indonesia on which he was working. In the following
years, he visited ANU quite often, in l983 for a year as Visiting Fellow,
and on my many visits to Jakarta I invariably saw him (and his charming
wife Tjoe), sometimes at their house, sometimes at LIPI for an arranged
seminar. He has been head of PEP, the economic and development
research centre of LIPI, since 1986, a post from which he will retire in
May this year, at age 65.
Thee (as he allows me to call him) is an ethnic-Chinese Indonesian
who does not speak Chinese but has had the courage to retain his Chinese
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Hal Hill, H.W. Arndt and Moh. Sadli
9
name. He and his wife speak Dutch at home and have family connections
in Holland, but both are equally fluent in Indonesian, English and Dutch.
Thee’s scholarly work has been mainly on industrial development,
transfer of technology and direct foreign investment in Indonesia, though
much of it recently has also been on Indonesia’s economic history. His
output has been phenomenal. His CV lists six books of his own, seven
books edited by him, 30 chapters in books, and countless articles, working
papers and memoranda. His letters—well over 100 in my correspondence
file—report, year in year out, on travels, to conferences and for research,
in Singapore, USA, Japan, Netherlands, Germany, India, Australia, and
on incessant overwork. Since 1985 he has been on the Editorial Board of
BIES and from its beginning in 1987 by far the most conscientious and
helpful Corresponding Editor of my journal, Asian Pacific Economic
Literature. For a great deal of business which could not easily be done
from Canberra, such as the distribution of BIES in Indonesia, the
production of the Indonesian edition of Sicat’s Economics and translations
of my books, we relied on Thee. Special mention must be made of the
role he played in interviewing the distinguished authors of the BIES
‘Recollections’ series and editing their contributions.
Much of my correspondence with Thee has in the last two years
inevitably revolved around the terrible political and economic
developments precipitated by the Asian financial crisis. One day during
the May l998 riots, he did not dare go home and stayed overnight at his
brother’s house. In the following days, he and others guarded the
neighbourhood, ‘balding and potbellied, armed with all kinds of funny
weapons’.
As the crisis deepened, Thee became increasingly pessimistic. ‘As an
Indonesian working and living in Indonesia, I must admit that I am
looking at a lot of things happening in our country through darker glasses
than you, Hal and Ross do. Yes, maybe I and many of my colleagues here
are cycnical or skeptical about our leaders as we have seen for too long
too much corruption, too much hypocrisy, and too much double-speak’.
I must admit, in retrospect, that Thee’s judgment was better than ours.
But writing on his return to Indonesia from Haarlem last November, he
commented on the new government with restrained optimism: ‘Let us
wait and see how the new government performs in the next few years.
Let us hope for the best and be prepared for the worst’.
That is Thee Kian Wie, the proud Indonesian and judicious scholar.
We hope to continue to enjoy his company from time to time and benefit
from his insight in the years to come.
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Introduction and Foreword
10
FOREWORD
Moh. Sadli
Indonesia Forum Foundation
It is with great pleasure that I accede to the request to contribute to BIES’s
commemoration of the work of our very good and dear friend, Thee Kian
Wie, who will turn 65 and plans to retire from LIPI, the Centre for
Economic and Development Studies of the Indonesian Institute for
Sciences (PEP-LIPI), where he has worked for so many years as a very
devoted and productive researcher.
Thee Kian Wie has earned our respect through his dedication as a
research scholar. There are now many, many more PhDs in economics in
Indonesia than in my time, 30 or 40 years ago. But because the demand
for professional services is still great, from government departments,
universities, and to function as public commentators, there are relatively
few with the stamina to remain devoted academic researchers, dirtying
their hands with fact finding at the grassroots level. Many just use the
results of such work for their analysis, and to reinforce their conclusions.
Thee Kian Wie’s unique role as a serious research scholar and
economic historian is probably connected with his ethnicity. That is, he
comes from an Indonesian-Chinese background. Had he been an
indigenous Indonesian, he would certainly have landed a top government
job and become a ‘bureaucrat’ or a ‘technocrat’. That would have been
the end of his research career.
While many young educated Indonesians of Chinese origin preferred
a business career, and did financially well, Thee Kian Wie preferred to
wear the scholarly mantle of relative poverty, but having many friends
and admirers, inside and outside the country.
Of course at LIPI today there are numerous young researchers in the
social sciences and economics who have not yet reached the top rank
bureaucracy, toiling in relative obscurity and poverty, but they are also
much younger than Thee Kian Wie. Some of the more senior researchers
at LIPI, especially political scientists, have become public commentators
or ‘pundits’ during the economic and political crisis, but I am not sure
whether they can boast as long a list of solid research output and books
as Thee Kian Wie. And they are not as well known internationally.
y [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji], [UNIVERSITAS MARITIM RAJA ALI HAJI TANJUNGPINANG, KEPULAUAN RIAU] at 22:03 19
Hal Hill, H.W. Arndt and Moh. Sadli
11
Thee Kian Wie’s strength is in economic history and
microeconomics—industry studies, technology, the role of foreign direct
investment, entrepreneurship, small and medium enterprise, and
industry policy. He has also done important work comparing the
performance of Northeast and Southeast Asian countries, for example
focusing on SMEs (small and medium-scale enterprises) in Taiwan, Korea
and Indonesia. In this respect his work is a welcome complement to that
of the larger group of macroeconomists in the government.
In Indonesia there are barely a handful of economists who study
economic history. Most Indonesians are not interested in the ‘colonial’
past, because emotionally they are preoccupied with the creation of a
‘national economy’ in an independent Indonesia. Most Indonesians also
prefer to look into the future rather than dwell on the past. Perhaps later,
when they mature in their judgment, they will be less impatient and
recognise that the present is rooted in the past, as is the future. Culture,
institutions, attitudes and behaviour change only slowly. Yet young,
ambitious and impatient macroeconomists like to think that, if only the
‘right’ economic policies can be implemented over an extended period,
the developing Southeast Asian countries can emulate the record of the
East Asian tigers.
Another of Thee Kian Wie’s important contributions to recording
Indonesian economic history has been his role as interviewer, together
with an ANU colleague, of a number of prominent Indonesians who have
played an important role in recent history. This has included not only
members of the ‘Berkeley Mafia’, but also entrepreneurs such as Soedarpo
and Teuku Mohamad Daud.