AHC: Developed Indonesia

The challenge is to make Indonesia into a developed country, dated after 1950s. Perhaps up to the level of an economical powerhouse the likes of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

Bonus points if Indonesia rose to ranks with the Four Asian Tigers.
 
You would need a president who is well-disposed towards Widjojo Nitisastro and the Berkeley Mafia's economics but who won't be distracted by high-cost projects and constantly making sure that his family/crony's economic interests are taken care of. In other words, Soeharto minus Ibnu Sutowo, Habibie and KKN.

Soeharto gave Widjojo and the Berkeley Mafia room to work, but he was constantly balancing them with other factions in his government. This would be reflected in his policies. He would be cutting fuel subsidies but continue to fund Habibie's IPTN, he would be lowering tariffs while creating regulations which favored family members in crony.

I would love to see if the Berkeley Mafia won more of the factional battles or had a President that followed them more.
 
The trick is to achieve independence without provoking excessively autarkic economic policies. Avoiding the destruction of WW2, the Revolution, and Konfrontasi would also be very helpful. One possible scenario could be if Nazi Germany is able to achieve some sort of victory in Europe, perhaps only temporary, while Japan does not invade the European colonial empires or falters quickly; failure to get French Indochina without having to fight for it would certainly prevent any thrust from reaching as far as Indonesia. This leaves the European colonial empires in SEA technically intact, but with the metropoles under Nazi domination. This in turn creates a power vacuum that would likely be filled by the United States, with a modest British involvement. Given the anti-colonialist agenda of the US during the 1940's it is highly likely that Indonesia and other European colonies would transition towards independence under a US-backed government, such as what was planned for the Philippines prior to WW2, allowing them all to achieve their independence without destructive wars while still retaining access to Western economies and expertise. True democracy may be some time coming, but IMO similar to South Korea or Taiwan it is likely to be achieved before the year 2000. By 2018 all of South East Asia should have developed reasonably strong economies with standards of living comparable to Taiwan or South Korea, unless some later destructive event occurs.
 
How about have Sukarno died shortly after declaration of independence (IOTL Sukarno actually read the proclamation while suffering from malaria), made Hatta president. After the Dutch left in 1949, Indonesia becomes federal republic under the leadership of Hatta instead of OTL unitary one.


This could mitigate some OTL problem such as economic, political, and social problems during late Sukarno's rule (as Hatta, unlike Sukarno, understand that the people cannot eat "revolution").

It might avoided PRRI and permesta rebellion since Hatta was seen by many non-Javanese as their "representative" in a Javanese-dominated Indonesia, and a federal system could made the outer island have more say in the country.

I still can't find a way to avoid OTL nationalist vs islamist political bickering, tho.
 
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