a self interest benevolence

Being blustered around by all this talking about ultra-nationalist hardcore, who thinks tackling foreign capital and investment, and confiscating foreign ownership, making it government owned companies are the solution for our country. Yes, the one and only, our dear CAPRES 2009 (mr. You-know-who). They seems to talk about asset accumulation, selling cheap ideas, that having such assets in government hand will make poor people better off.

let see, when Indosat (the one mr.You-know-who always bragging about) was in our hands, do poor people get benefit from that? when Pertamina got rich do poor people will directly increase their welfare? a clue, NO.

but hey, when Indosat got privatized, what had happened? the cost of calling people suddenly drop, Telkomsel was forced to pull some strings too on their profit. Good thing for the less fortunate people huh? of course not for the richer ones, they lost lots of profit from Indosat selling. but hey for now we get cheaper price, but unfortunately crappy quality as well. Need more option in the market though, Big players such asTelkomsel and Indosat might need a better competitor in the future. So we can get better provider, with cheaper services.

Back to assets, I am really not an expert in this, and I am not writing this to show that I am having some kind of renaissance in religious thinking. I just think this is a good idea to distribute assets and more opportunities and empowerment to the poor, yes its about assets, just less "ekonomi rakyat", or "komprador", or anti "neoliberal" label in it.

mind you, but the only one who getting rich has always been the one with greater access to the power, and hence I don't really think having assets like Indosat, caltex, (or whatsoever the target of the you-know-who) might benefit the poor. Instead the poor will still be marginalized by our bureaucratic systems.

If you consider yourself nationalists you might consider to contribute to this or this. its all about a collective action in providing public services. No unlawful confiscating asset needed, just a simple philanthropy. Remember that Adam smith, the father of economics, strongly advise small government, but he himself regard benevolence as a supreme virtue. A free will based benevolence, a self-interest benevolence.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ya, isu "nasionalisme"/"nasioanlisasi" memang akan menjadi komoditas politik paling joz, Selain "kemiskinan", "Pendidikan", "Pertanian", "Kepemudaan", dan isu lainnya yg mudah diplintir....

Anonymous said...

"Remember that Adam smith, the father of economics, strongly advise small government, but he himself regard benevolence as a supreme virtue. A free will based benevolence, a self-interest benevolence."

Really? Please read the introduction of "The Real Price of Everything: Rediscovering the Six Classics of Economics" by Michael Lewis.

Anonymous said...

Hello,nice post thanks for sharing?. I just joined and I am going to catch up by reading for a while. I hope I can join in soon.

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