Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia

By Beni Bevly
City of Berkeley, California, USA and its University of California have remakable history and plays important role in shaping today’s Indonesia, and Indonesia-USA relationship. It was started from a group who pursued they education at the University of California (UC), Berkeley in 1960’s. In New Order period under Suharto’s regime, this group facilitated long-term U.S.-Indonesian strategic cooperation. This group is known as Berkeley Mafia. They are proud to be mentioned as “mafia.”

On Saturday, March 03, 2007, I went to Berkeley. It took me about 1 hour drive from my house in Mountain House, California. When I exited from free way 580 to University Avenue, Berkeley, I felt different vibrant. Hippy, proletariat, peace, freedom of self-expression are among the words to mention Berkeley environment.

I parked at the rear of University Coin-Op laundry where the UC Berkeley students do their laundry. I had lunch at Jayakarta Restaurant, an Indonesia cuisine. Then I spent the rest of the day for exploring the famous city and its university.

Even though I took accounting class in summer at this university several years ago, but it was not the one that is in Berkeley. I attended its campus which is located in San Francisco.

Berkeley is the site of the University of California, Berkeley, the oldest campus of the ten-campus University of California system, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Hall of Science, Space Sciences Laboratory, and Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, which are on the campus grounds (http://wikipedia.org/). UC Berkeley was founded in 1868 in a merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College.

The University of California, Berkeley (also known as UC Berkeley, Berkeley, and Cal) is occupying about 200 acres on a wooded slope plus an additional 1000 acres (4 km²) of largely undeveloped land in the Berkeley Hills. The university offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines.

The postwar years saw moderate growth of the City, but events on the U.C. campus began to build up to the recognizable activism of the sixties. In the 1950s, McCarthyism induced the University to demand a loyalty oath from its professors, many of whom refused to sign any such oath on the principle of freedom of thought. In 1960, a U.S. House committee (HUAC) came to San Francisco to investigate the influence of communists in the Bay Area. Their inquisition was met by protesters, including many from the University. Meanwhile, a number of U.C. students became active in support of the Civil Rights Movement.

Finally, the University in 1964 provoked a massive student protest by banning the distribution of political literature on campus. This protest became known as the Free Speech Movement. As the Vietnam War rapidly escalated in the ensuing years, so did student activism at the University.

Although many think of the 1960s as the heyday of liberalism in Berkeley, it remains one of the most overwhelmingly liberal cities in the United States, with its 2004 presidential vote going more than 90% for John Kerry (54,419 votes) versus only 6.7% for George W. Bush (4,010 votes).

In the period of 1960’s, the Berkeley Mafia — a U.S.-educated group of Indonesian economists – learnt, experienced and witnessed how the world changed from UC Berkeley point of view. With the knowledge that they compiled from this university, together with Seharto’s regime, they put a lot of efforts to bring Indonesia back from dire economic conditions and the brink of famine in the mid-1960s. They were appointed as ministers in the ‘New Order’ administration for almost three decades. They also involved in long-term U.S.-Indonesian strategic cooperation, which was important during the Cold War.

The members of the Berkeley Mafia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Mafia):

Widjojo Nitisastro: Minister of Planning and National Development/Chairman of the National Development Planning Body (BAPPENAS) (1967-1983), Coordinating Minister of Economics, Finance, and Industry (1973-1983), Advisor to BAPPENAS (1983-1998), Economics Advisor to the President (1993-1998), Chairman of the Economics Assistance Team (1999-2001)

Ali Wardhana: Minister of Finance (1973-1983), Coordinating Minister of Economics, Finance, and Industry (1983-1988).

JB Sumarlin: Vice Chairman of BAPPENAS (1973-1982), Minister of State Apparatus (1973-1983), Minister of Planning and National Development/Chairman of BAPPENAS (1983-1988), Minister of Finance (1988-1993).

Subroto: Minister of Manpower, Transmigration, and Cooperatives (1973-1978), Minister of Mines and Energy (1978-1988).

Emil Salim: Vice Chairman of BAPPENAS (1967-1971), Minister of State Apparatus (1971-1973), Minister of Transportation, Communication, and Tourism (1973-1978), Minister of Development Supervision and Environment (1978-1983), Minister of Population and Environment (1983-1993).

Regardless, some of the negative consequences of their actions and collaboration with Suharto, we cannot deny that this group had shaped Indonesia as we see now, the good and the bad.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.