David Thomas: “In closing, I must say that it has been a unique pleasure and honor to serve on the committee with its former Chairman…”

“In closing, I must say that it has been a unique pleasure and honor to serve on the committee with its former Chairman, Senator Pell. I appreciate his views and opinions, as well as his frequent participation in the work of my subcommittee. His departure from the Senate is a loss both to the committee and to the whole institution; he will be missed. Indonesia is a vast, dynamic and complicated country. It has the fourth largest population in the world and the largest Muslim population in the world; yet it remains strongly secular. The government is an authoritarian one, led and dominated by President Soeharto, a small number of his advisors and the military. There is no apparent successor to Soeharto and no tested process in place for a transition of power. The economy is increasingly open and deregulated, but subject to widespread corruption and influence peddling. There are a number of issues of interest to the United States in Indonesia. Indonesia has had an impressive economic development and an impressive increase in the average life expectancy. There is a developing middle class. The government has developed and implemented a model population control program. The focus of my trip, however, was a visit to East Timor.”