[This article was forwarded to Joyo without date and publication. The journalist writes frequently about Indonesia for The Guardian (UK).]

John Aglionby, Manado, North Sulawesi – The authorities at Bitung harbour have a problem they are not sure how to solve. Boats are queuing up to dock at the main entrepot to north Sulawesi in such numbers they cannot all be accommodated at once.

"We have doubled the workforce but we still cannot cope," explained dock foreman Danny Lumintut as he supervised the loading of locally-made soap on to a vessel bound for the Philippines.

At the neighbouring berth a gang of dockers stripped to the waist were sweating profusely as they hurried to unload a consignment of copra that had just arrived from the nearby island of Ternate. Across the wharf dozens of men were loading the same commodity onto a 200-metre-long Chinese tanker heading to Rotterdam.

"This time last year about three boats a month left for the Philippines," said Mr Lumintut. "Now it is averaging 13 or 14. All that is preventing it being more is that the demand for exports is greater than that for imports and businessmen don't want their ships to be sailing around empty."

Creating this oasis of prosperity in Indonesia's – and indeed East Asia's – economic morass is Sulawesi's wealth of cash crops, primarily copra, spices, sugar, cacao, coffee and prawns. In the last month, as the harvest season has got into full swing, the economic crisis that has seen Indonesia's currency depreciate more than 80 per cent in the last year has left Sulawesi's farmers at a loss over what to do with their newfound wealth. The phrase now on everyone's lips is: "Crisis, what crisis?"

"Of course my expenses have risen on account of the crisis," explained Sendy Sumarau, a 28-year-old copra farmer who lives 20 miles outside the city of Manado. "But my income has soared so much more that my profit is still three to fours times what it was last year."

With the country's banking system one of the worst victims of the financial turmoil, most people are either saving money at home, or spending it on consumer goods that have suddenly become very cheap. A local cacao farmer was recently reported as buying a king-size refrigerator even though his village has yet to get electricity. He said he would use it as a wardrobe until his village is connected to the local grid.

Televisions are also proving popular. "During the World Cup we could barely keep up with demand," said Jane Manua, who helps her parents run an electronic goods shop in Manado's market. "Even though prices have doubled [in the last year], everyone was buying TVs and satellite dishes."

The latest Indonesian government statistics say 40 per cent of the country's 200 million people are living below the poverty line but, unlike in Java where the number of destitute is skyrocketing, beggars are a rare species on the streets of Manado. For every family, particularly in North Sulawesi, has a few acres of their own. Businessman Gus Kairupan grumbled his 94-year-old mother was deserted by her two carers for a fortnight last month after their parents ordered them home to help gather the clove harvest.

"These servants have more land than most middle-class families in Java," he said. "This year they will have more money than most people in Java." He added that people also used their land to grow staple foodstuffs. "So most people in North Sulawesi only have to buy three of the nine basic essentials, flour, oil and sugar. This means they have not been hit so hard by price rises of goods such as rice and eggs."

Many of the boats leaving Bitung for the Philippines are also loaded with clothes and household goods. "Our neighbours are just cleaning out our shops," said Hary, a marketing executive for one of the local retailers. "We have to keep prices down so locals can afford them but what is happening is that foreign wholesalers are coming in. "Even though they are buying at retail prices it still cheaper for them to come here and to ship it home than to buy from their regular suppliers."

One of the few sectors still struggling in Manado is tourism. Foreign visitor arrivals to Indonesia almost dried up following the widespread social unrest in May that led to the downfall of former autocrat Suharto and tourists are still staying away from north Sulawesi, despite it having some of the best diving in the world and tropical rainforests containing unique flora and fauna.

To restimulate the industry, a dozen hoteliers, diving operators and travel agents formed their own marketing association three weeks ago. Angelique Batuna, the group's secretary, explained they are now marketing north Sulawesi as a destination in itself. "We are not mentioning Indonesia at all because that scares people off," she said. "Even though there was no trouble here in May and we are 2,500 kilometres from Jakarta, foreigners know so little about Indonesia they think the whole country is dangerous. So we are getting people to think North Sulawesi not Indonesia."

This aversion to things Indonesian is not confined to the tourist industry, according to Ms Sumarau, the copra farmer. "About 50 per cent of the people around here are now talking seriously about separatism. We have had enough of propping up Java and want to exploit our full potential."

Under Indonesia's first two presidents, Sukarno and Mr Suharto, Indonesia's resource-rich outer islands were forced to send more than three-quarters of their wealth to Jakarta and often saw less than 10 per cent of it in return. The third president, B.J.Habibie, promised greater regional autonomy shortly after he came to power in May but has taken no concrete steps whatsoever.

Mr Kairupan agreed with Ms Semarau. He said many older people could still remember 1958 when North Sulawesi briefly seceded from Indonesia over the same grievances as people are airing now, lack of administrative autonomy and unequal distribution of national wealth. "It is still only talk at the moment," he said. "But if Jakarta gives so much as a whiff of autonomy to somewhere like East Timor you can bet the government will be hearing from us."

[It should be noted that the reference to the 1958 succession attempt in fact refers to a coup staged by right-wing military commanders in 1956. The CIA assisted with supplies and equipment and one US pilot was shot down by national forces, captured and put on trial. In February 1958, they announced the formation of a Revolutionary Government of Indonesia but despite its name, they were very much a counter-revolutionary grouping. In the areas under their control, prison camps were one the first things to be built and thousands communists and leftists were imprisoned. They were eventually defeated following a civil war with army units still loyal to Jakarta - James Balowski.]