Economy

AHMAD SOFIAN explores the lives of young people on hundreds of isolated fishing platforms in the Malacca Straits

Allegations of influence peddling by Indonesia's Lippo financial group may be unproven, but opened a bigger trail that led elsewhere. JAY LOSHER reports from America.

Many private banks set up by Indonesia's super-wealthy in the 1980s are reeling under the weight of mismanagement. But connections sometimes allow them to evade the laws of financial gravity, as SUARA INDEPENDEN shows in these two reports.

It's lonely in the Forestry Minister's office, says GERRY VAN KLINKEN.

VEDI HADIZ sent this eyewitness account from South Sulawesi.

Air crashes, riots, smog, and a currency crisis dented tourist arrivals in 1997. But, says ANNA KARIN EKLÖF, newly rich Asian tourists will save the industry in the long term.

MICK COOPES drags a bicycle through the wilds of Toraja, South Sulawesi.

The currency crisis is making Thailand more democratic, but not Indonesia, says PRIYAMBUDI.

The World Bank has joined the IMF in a huge rescue package. Indonesian non-government organisations (NGOs) presented this memo to World Bank president James Wolfensohn in Jakarta.

Indonesian fishermen whose traditional fishing grounds are in Australian waters may have a Mabo-style claim, says CAMPBELL WATSON.

HELEN LANDYMORE found herself surveying rare birds and fish in stunning locations when she joined an Operation Wallacea expedition.

The IMF recipe is no cure for Asia's collapsed economies, says WALDEN BELLO. Instead, a people's strategy is emerging that looks to self-reliance and democratic control over capital.

Authoritarian Southeast Asian governments have been dealt a blow by market forces, says MICHAEL VATIKIOTIS, but democracy will not flourish until people begin to organise locally.

GERRY VAN KLINKEN traces the spectacular financial events that paralysed the country's business and political elites.

Impoverished villagers kill huge numbers of migrating birds resting on Java's foreshores each year. JOHN McCARTHY reports

CAROL WARREN reports on developments at Padanggalak, where outside money and graft encounter strong opposition.

SIMON ANDREWARTHA discovers a quiet invasion by outsiders, even in the remotest villages.

CHRIS MANNING explains why the workers suffer but cannot protest.

Millions of hectares of pristine tropical forest and thousands of indigenous people are at risk. FRANCES CARR outlines Habibie's 'techno dream' for Irian Jaya.