How Governments Use Big Business
Well, here we are at the end of another semester. To be exact, it’s been one week into the holidays and I’m supposed to get some things done for the Student Movement but unfortunately, I have been afflicted by what Renny, our former vice-president, diagnosed as "Post-Examination Slack Syndrome" (PESS). It seems to be very common among NUS students.
Anyway, I’ll be posting our Annual Report up soon enough. In the meantime, here’s an intriguing excerpt that overturns the conventional way we think about MNC-government relationships:
The company was also put to good political use by the president. To all intents and purposes Freeport became a quasi-state organization for Jakarta in West Papua as the principal developer and administrator of its project area and surrounds. At the same time, through support for the transmigration settlements and the military the company assisted Jakarta in its policy of "Indonesianization" of the area. Finally, back in the United States, Freeport became an influential public relations agent for the regime. Thus, far from Suharto’s being a puppet of the company, as was the general perception in Indonesia, Freeport had become a compliant and valuable asset that, with the company’s complicity, was exploited by the president.
- "The Politics of Power: Freeport in Suharto’s Indonesia", by Denise Leith, 2003
We normally think of the state as subservient to the mighty corporation, but here’s a case wherein Goliath has been tamed. Of course, there’s much more to the story than just this little excerpt. The Freeport-McMoRan case involves collusion, corruption, human rights violations and devastating environmental impacts, all of which were made possible within a special kind of dynamics with the Suharto regime. It’s almost a classic potboiler.
