>From yesterday's front page Wall Street Journal
article on Indonesia, "Washington's Tilt to Business
Stirs a Backlash in Indonesia":
"In Indonesia's case, "protecting the interests of major investors and creditors was at the center of the table in everything we did," says Edmund McWilliams, who was chief political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Jakarta from 1996 to 1999. "Concerns about stability made it to the margins. Concerns about human rights, democracy, corruption never made it onto the table at all."
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I read this article with great interest.
It joins other stories I've read in recent months about popular (and some domestic elite) resistance in Latin America, Asia, Russia and the Middle East to US-directed economic poliices.
It seems to me we are beginning to see a global weariness with neoliberalism and immiseration - people are less inclined to listen to the (essentially religous) argument that present pain will lead to future prosperity if only 'market wisdom' is followed.
My South Korean contacts have told me riveting stories about the 'riding the tiger' policies Seoul adopted following the 1997 meltdown to publicly kiss IMF ass while privately telling these zero-success-track-record losers where to go. There's also a feeling (according to my S. Korean friends) that Japan, China, S. Korea and Taiwan are simply waiting for the day the US retracts from exhaustion and over-reach and are hoping that between now and then the Americans don't blow up the world.
I don't know if these tales are true or 'just so' stories of national heroism among the suited class. The important thing to focus on is that ordinary people are increasingly aware of the consequences of Western interference (even the subtle maneuvers of free-flow global capital) and are on-guard against it; it appears the days of admiration and wide-eyed belief are over for many millions. This even seems to be trickling up to some savvy policy wonks in the governments of several countries.
I'm wondering if others are seeing this too and if so, what opinions there are on how many more 'interference and exploitation' cards the West in general and the US in particular might still hold.
DRM