THERE was a real sense of euphoria in many offices at the headquarters of Bank Indonesia (BI). On Monday night last week, officials of the central bank were cheering, but they were not watching football on the television. They had in fact just heard the news from the legislature in Senayan that Burhanuddin Abdullah had just been elected as their new boss, replacing Syahril Sabirin.

Burhanuddin seems to be fairly well respected among BI emplo