TWO cabinet ministers spoke to each other over a distance of more than 16,000 kilometers last October. Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa was at his office in Jakarta, on the phone with Finance Minister Muhamad Chatib Basri in Washington, DC, who was attending a meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors.

Hatta's voice sounded urgent as he told Chatib of a report he just received about thousands of workers at a Ria