Shefali Rekhi – The man behind the reforms and privatisation efforts of Indonesia's state-owned enterprises has criticised his government for the slow progress in its privatisation process.

Mr Tanri Abeng, who left office as the Minister for State-Owned enterprises in October last year, said: "There has been no privatisation at all since I left, not a single new inflow since then. Politics has derailed the privatisation programme completely and today it is a total failure," he said.

Mr Abeng, who is now busy setting up a new Global Leadership Institute in Bali, was discussing this and other issues in an interview with The Straits Times yesterday. He is in Singapore on a three-day visit to promote his third book, entitled Indonesia Inc.

He said that if the original programme had been followed through, the Indonesian economy would have been in a better shape with inflows of about US$4 billion to US$5 billion. Instead, total inflows between March 1998 and October 1999 – when he was in charge – were only worth about US$1 billion, he said..

The number of state-owned firms experiencing some reforms was limited to five against 159 in the country, he said.

"It is damaging the Indonesian economy while the state-owned enterprises continue to be inefficient," he said. "There is no generation of fresh capital, no contribution for fiscal deficit. And worse, instead of moving forward the government is moving backward."

Elaborating, Mr Abeng said the new ministry created for handling the privatisation during his time had been disbanded and the portfolio brought under the Ministry of Finance.

In a short span of three years, three new ministers had been appointed to the post. Similarly, the team of professionals nominated to handle the privatisation had been changed thrice.

He felt greater damage was being done by the absence of a move to regroup the 159 companies into 10 strategic sectors to build on their synergies and enhance their competitiveness. This was a key recommendation made by his team.

He, however, admitted he too was to blame in part for the current state of affairs. He said: "I was doing the privatisation in a very business-like way. I did not manage the political issues well." Analysts, however, believe that his privatisation programme suffered from discrepancies as well.

In his book, published by Times Publishing and to be officially launched in Indonesia later, he discusses at length his country's experiment thus far with the privatisation process and suggests corrective measures. It was to set the record straight, with a hope that someone would take note, he said.