Abstract

Hope After Massacre

This article examines the socioeconomic scene in Indonesia. The author narrates the situation as he came across during a visit to the national capital Jakarta. There seems to be more automobiles in Jakarta now than four years ago. Indonesian petrol is the cheapest (some say the worst) in the world, but cars are not cheap; and yet officials claim that there are close to half a million of them running through Jakarta's streets. Every visitor is puzzled to understand who can afford them. Wages for everybody, including Army officers, are miserably low. The Central Bureau of Statistics gives out that the population now stands at 109.5 million. If the labor estimates are reasonably accurate, there are tremendously more workless than workers in Indonesia.