Bakrie-controlled companies cover the breadth of Indonesia's economy, including mining, oil and gas, palm oil, property, telecommunications and finance.
After the collapse of Indonesia's economy along with longtime ruler Suharto in the late 1990s, a weary world tended to discount the nation's travails.
For a country whose population is still overwhelmingly rural, and which throughout its history has experienced recurrent food shortages, such an omission indicates a superficial analysis of Indonesia's economy.
Nonetheless, the two communities managed to live together in harmony, not only in the more prosperous years preceding the Crisis, but also during the difficult year-and-a-half since the collapse of Indonesia's economy.
Mr Wahid's supporters are also among the victims of Indonesia's battered economy, and they will continue to suffer if the violence and intrigue scare off foreign investors.
India is best compared, as I subsequently said in a posting at Forbes.com, with Indonesia in terms of political economy and the impediments to growth.
Indonesia's economy, by way of comparison, took over four years to right itself after the financial crisis that ended President Suharto's 32-year reign.
Since 2000, Indonesia's economy has grown at an average of more than 4% a year.
Indonesia's economy remains hobbled by the effects of the region's 1997-98 recession.
One of, say, 15% would do wonders for stimulating growth and shrinking the informal economy--which, some observers estimate, encompasses about half of Indonesia's economic activity.
Even Indonesia, whose economy had seemed rock-solid through the worst of Thailand's crisis, is feeling the pressure.
Indonesia's faltering economy and political scandals have also undermined the authority of the central government.
Indonesia's Suharto fell victim to the impersonal forces of the international economy--the United States didn't even lift a finger to ease him out the door.
Through his children, he was introduced to Steven Hanke, an American economist who believes that the way to restore confidence in Indonesia's economy is through pegging the rupiah to the dollar by means of a currency board, as Hong Kong, Argentina, Bulgaria and others do.
Others, such as some of the telecoms investments, are paying the price for their dependence on Indonesia's domestic economy.
In return for the Fund's backing, Indonesia would carry out specific reforms of its financial sector, the better to prepare its economy for the rupiah peg and ease the concerns of the IMF and foreign investors.
Apart from a cooling global economy and the prospects of soft landing in China, Freeport faced labor disputes, particularly in its Grasberg mine in Indonesia.
FORBES: Freeport McMoran Beats Despite Plummeting Copper And Grasberg Strike
Even Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, that most vocal proponent of keeping quiet about the neighbors' problems, will visit Suharto to talk about Indonesia's economy.
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