THE reception room of the State Place on Jalan Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta was crowded with people that Tuesday night last week as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and members of his government met in a get-together with about a hundred veterans of the Indonesian war of independence. Yudhoyono used the occasion to deliver a speech on the state of the nation’s economy.

The President struck a tone of disappointment in his speech whe