The International Monetary Fund (IMF) needs little introduction. Its visible and contentious involvement in the regional crisis have attracted inordinate media attention both good and bad. On one end of the scale, it has been portrayed as an institutionalized financial messiah, whose mere presence is able to resurrect emaciated economies and restore the public's confidence. However, at the same time it is also regarded by others as a Western-dominated financial bludgeon whose measures are aimed to break open developing economies for foreign pickings.

It is not difficult to find that such...