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| PT Geoff Forrester Indonesia - Geoff Forrester Asia & Associates Pty Ltd |
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Post-Soeharto Indonesia Renewal or Chaos?Available from the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore. For further information , email books@iseas.edu.sg. This book brings together the contributions of a large number of Indonesians and foreign analysts to the 1998 Indonesia Update conference at the Australian National University. Soeharto had just fallen. The future was very unclear. This book therefore asks more questions than it answers: renewal or chaos? What are Indonesia’s prospects over the next ten years? Indonesia’s economy was being ravaged by the Asian
economic crisis. Its leader for 32 years, President Soeharto, had been
forced from office in May 1998 amidst savage rioting and tumultuous student
demonstrations. Other contributors assessed the state of the Indonesian economy; developments within the Indonesian Armed Forces; and the wave of popular anger and frustration which in 1998was sweeping Java, where sixty percent of Indonesians live. |
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Policy Coordination in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Tradein P. Weller, J. Foster and G. Davis, “Reforming the Public Service”, MacMillan Education Australia, 1993 Out of Print Geoff, then Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), produced a chapter on the reform process in DFAT for this 1993 book on the reform of the Australian Public Service begun in the 1980s by the Hawke Government. In 1987 the old Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Information Service were amalgamated into the now Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The main reform issue for DFAT was making the amalgamation work at the same time as it implemented the sweeping Hawke Government public sector reforms. In his chapter, Geoff argues that policy coordinating “involves going back to basics. It is shorthand for ensuring the health of the systems and structures put in place to ensure that organisational eyes are always kept on the main games…The focus is very much on the systems the department has put in place to help achieve its fundamental objectives.” The chapter describes how DFAT set its corporate goals
and evaluated its achievements; how it decided on the reallocation of
resources to reflect changing priorities; how it responded to crises overseas
that engage Australian interests; and how it established appraisal, training
and information systems to ensure that that it had staff with the skills
and the flexibility to deliver what DFAT needed. |
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Policy Advising Programs - The Impact of Audit and EvaluationCanberra Bulletin of Public Administration, No 73, September 1993 Out of Print An important reform embraced by DFAT in the 1990s under
Geoff’s guidance was the embracing of the discipline of fearless
auditing and honest evaluation of the work of DFAT. This article explains
the audit and evaluation initiatives adopted by DFAT in this period. |
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Peacekeeping at the Crossroadsin “Peacekeeping: Challenges for the Future”,
ed. Hugh Smith, Australian Defence Studies Centre, 1993 Out of Print One sustained element of Geoff’s career in DFAT was the United Nations. He served in the Australian Mission to the UN from 1975 to 1978. In the 1980s, he was head of DFAT’s International Organisations Branch. In this period he managed DFAT headquarters involvement with Australia’s 1986-87 term on the Security Council. This long background in the UN supported the focus in the 1990s of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Gareth Evans, on strengthening the peacekeeping and peacemaking roles of the UN in resolving international disputes and restoring peace and order in failing states. Geoff contributed significantly to Senator Evans book, “Cooperating for Peace: The Global Agenda for the 1990s and Beyond”. Senator Evans’ book stimulated the two books listed
here, to each of which Geoff contributed chapters. These words are even more relevant today as United States
unilateral action in Iraq, without UN involvement, is failing. The difficulties
now confronting the United States and its allies, including Australia,
underline the need for UN members, particularly the United States, to
work to build a more effective role for the UN in developing and implementing
cooperative security arrangements. |
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The Northern Territory and its Role in the Region in “Budgeting for Statehood in the Northern Territory”,
ed. Christine Fletcher and Cliff Walsh, Northern Australia Research Unit,
1997 Out of Print In 1996, after he retired as Deputy Secretary of DFAT,
Geoff moved to Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. He became
a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University’s Northern
Australia Research Unit (NARU), located in Darwin. NARU developed a focus
on Australia’s and the Northern Territory’s relations with
the Asian region. In 1997 and 1998 NARU published the books above on regional
issues, to which Geoff contributed. |
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Towards March 1998, With Determinationin “Indonesia’s Technological Challenge”, ed. Hal Hill
and Thee Kian Wie, ANU & Institute of South East Asian Studies, 1998 Out of Print In 1997, Geoff moved to Jakarta to observe Indonesia’s 1997 general elections and the beginnings of the Asian Economic Crisis in Indonesia in late 1997. The two papers above were written in 1997 as the economic crisis began to take hold and intensify in Indonesia. They were written before the March 1998 MPR session which unanimously re-elected Soeharto to the Presidency for a further five year term. Soeharto was then still determined to stay on in power. There was no inkling yet of the betrayals and momentous political upheavals that would force him from the Presidency on 21 May 1998. |
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The Fall of Soehartoed. Geoff Forrester and R. J. May, Crawford House and Select Publishing, 1998 and 1999, translated into Bahasa Indonesia as “Jatuhnya Soeharto”, Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI), 1999 Out of Print President Soeharto was a giant in the region. He ruled Indonesia for thirty-two years. And yet he resigned in disgrace on 21 May 1998, amidst Indonesia’s worst rioting since he assumed power in 1965. How is it possible that he was driven from office a mere eleven weeks after his unanimous re-election as President on 10 March? What factors contributed to his fall? Who were the main players? What are the prospects for political reform and economic recovery in the post-Soeharto era? Published in August 1998, this book was the first to answer these critical questions surrounding the downfall of Soeharto. The book includes a contemporaneous description of the tumultuous events of May 1998 written by Geoff. His “Jakarta Diary” can be read by going to the Reports section of this website. This book sets out the roles of the students and the
main players in the elite who contributed to Soeharto’s downfall.
It analyses the causes of the fall of Soeharto and suggests some options
for future directions in Indonesia. The “Fall of Soeharto” is an authoritative
work on this momentous landmark in Indonesia’s and South East Asia’s
history. It is a basic handbook for students of post-Soeharto Indonesia.
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Accessing Essential Services: Reforming the Role of Government in Indonesiain Towards Asia's Sustainable Development: The Role of Social Protection”, OECD, 2001 Out of Print The OECD undertook research in 1999 on the impact of the Asian Economic Crisis on social welfare in Indonesia and the role and responsibilities of Government in providing essential services to Indonesians. The research was published in 2001 in this book.
“If laws 22 and 25 of 1999 are implemented as designed, they could nevertheless achieve a dramatic decentralisation of power and authority over key areas of services -- health, education, agriculture and communications communications -- vital to the welfare of the mass of Indonesians. The health and education functions, for example, already operate through a highly decentralised delivery network, but authority and decision-making have been centralised until now in Jakarta. Decisions about the location of schools and health posts and about needs and the nature and quality of the services to be provided could henceforth be made at a much lower level in the government structure, and hopefully in accordance with local wishes. Decisions are more likely to reflect local wishes when local communities have a genuine voice in the provincial, kabupaten and village assemblies envisaged under the regional government law. “The new laws aim to bring a greater openness and transparency to regional government. There should also be a much greater measure of democratisation of institutions, consistent with the strong emphasis in the legislation on the devolution of powers to the lowest levels of authority and the balancing of the executives at each level with democratically elected representative institutions down to the village level. This democratisation of society from the village up, if realised, would compel government at all levels to pay attention to the needs of a much wider span of society. “Resource rich provinces will be major beneficiaries of the new arrangements on revenue sharing, particularly those with highly profitable mining operations like Irian Jaya and East Kalimantan. Foreign investors will have to pay as much attention (if not more) to regional authorities as to the central government. Resource rich provinces and kabupaten will be able to offer their own packages of inducements to foreign investors. Strong provinces will be able to negotiate on a more even playing field with the capital. “The laws permit regional governments to raise additional revenue from their own sources. Regional governments could use this power counterproductively. In the midst of the 1997 crisis, the Government eliminated a wide range of local charges and levies in order to reduce production and distribution costs and make Indonesia more competitive for investors. Research has shown that the abolished levies have been replaced by new “quasi-taxes”. Investors fear that regional governments will impose levies and charges regardless of existing agreements and commitments from the Central Government. If this happens, investors could go elsewhere. “Implementation of the reforms will not be easy. They will be hampered by the poor quality and lack of experience generally of the civil servants who will be called on locally to run this radically different system of government. Another danger is the emergence of a new kind of localised corruption if central and local controls on local government and local representative bodies are weak. Local universities and NGOs lack the experience and knowledge to scrutinise effectively the financial and budgetary data produced their local administrations and assemblies. “There is also a justifiable concern about the lack of financial resources of the poorest regions. This fear is the reason the legislation gives the Central Government the capacity to intervene and fund specific programs in the autonomous regions down to the village level. “This special assistance and Central Government General and Special Allocations are unlikely to be large enough to compensate for the paucity of local or resource-related revenues. And in the present economic crisis, the Central Government may not have the resources to continue the targeted poverty reduction programs developed over the New Order period, which have demonstrably worked. “In these circumstances, the poorest provinces
may well continue to languish and fall behind as long as their own locally
generated income is minimal and the centre cannot provide substantial
assistance to compensate.” |
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Australia-Indonesia Relations: Facing the New MillenniumPaper for 22 April 1999 University of Indonesia Australian Studies Centre workshop, published also in the Jakarta Post Out of Print This prophetic article was written in April 1999 for a symposium on Australia/Indonesia relations held by the Australian Studies Centre of the University of Indonesia. It was the eve of the referendum in East Timor on its future relationship with Indonesia. Geoff predicted the souring of Australia/Indonesia relations, which resulted from the Australian intervention in East Timor after the referendum results were announced. Relations remain subdued five years later: “The immediate prospects for Australia-Indonesia relations are gloomy. “It would have been ludicrous to make such a statement six months ago. Why suggest it now? “My reasons for doing so have nothing to do with the economic crisis. Despite the collapse of much of the modern sector of the Indonesian economy, the economic relationship has remained strong. Australian investors have for the most part remained committed to Indonesia, and Australia has responded to the crisis with a substantial increase in development assistance. “Nor is Indonesia’s overall human rights record the problem. Despite some glaring breaches, for example at Semanggi on 13 November 1998, Indonesia’s human rights record has improved substantially with the fall of Soeharto. There is a new press freedom. And Indonesians are preparing for the first genuinely democratic election in 44 years. “The issue which is undermining and poisoning
the bilateral relationship is East Timor.” |
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