Portal:Indonesia/BOTW/49, 2007

Kwik Kian Gie (born 11 January 1935 in Juwana, Central Java) was the Indonesian coordinating minister of economics and finance 1999-2000; minister of national development planning 2001-2004. He is a prominent Indonesian Chinese economist who often wrote columns in the liberal newspaper KOMPAS criticizing the policies of the Suharto administration in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Following a teaching post in the Economics department of the University of Indonesia, he held several corporate executive positions, and was an entrepreneur. However, he maintained a strong interest in politics and education, and said to the press that, "I now have enough money to pay for anything I can wish for," and with that started his involvement with the PDI-P opposition political party of Megawati Sukarnoputri.

He was promoted to coordinating minister of economics and finance by Abdurrahman Wahid. His tenure was seen as a failure due to the hype that he failed to live up to. He is known as an honest politician and economist, although his writings are sometimes considered controversial.(read more...)