In the waning years of the New Order, President Suharto announced a plan to sell state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to cover the installments and interests accruing on the government's foreign loans. But as the public was not aware how the US dollar loans were spent, this very logical suggestion got the cold shoulder. Even today, the plan to privatize SOEs is still not well-explained to the people.

Under the present administration of Megawati So