Berkeley Mafia

The Berkeley Mafia was the term given to a group of University of California-trained economists in Indonesia who were given technocratic positions under the Suharto dictatorship during the late 1960s. They were appointed in the early stages of the New Order administration. Their work focused on promoting free-market capitalism in Indonesia and reversing many of the progressive economic reforms that had been introduced by the Sukarno government. The economic system in place under the New Order regime was termed crony capitalism due to the vast corruption within the country throughout this period. The Berkeley Mafia, like the Suharto dictatorship itself, aligned with the United States during the Cold War. Sharing significant similarities with the Chicago Boys in Chile (1970s–80s), such as staunch anti-communism, the Berkeley Mafia was not considered to be neoliberal unlike the former. The group included Widjojo Nitisastro, Mohammad Sadli, Emil Salim, J. B. Sumarlin, and Ali Wardhana. Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti who graduated later from Berkeley is also sometimes included as a member of this group. In the mid-1950s, the economists who would become the Berkeley Mafia were students at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia (FEUI). The faculty was headed by Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, an economist who had served as Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister of Finance for the Government. Sumitro was the only teacher with an economics doctorate and so had to turn to foreign lecturers from the Netherlands and lecturers from other faculties to assist in educating the students at FEUI. As tensions grew between Indonesia and the Dutch government over West Irian (now known as West Papua), Dutch lecturers began to leave the country. Sumitro turned to the Ford Foundation for assistance. The Ford Foundation then began a process by which students from the FEUI were chosen to undertake overseas studies at the University of California, Berkeley. After the Ford Foundation had conducted some preliminary preparations, the overseas studies program began in 1957.