The disintegration of Indonesia's New Order regime in 1998 and the fall of

Soeharto put an end to the crude forms of centralised authoritarianism and

economic protectionism that allowed large Chinese conglomerates to dom-

inate Indonesia's private sector. Contrary to all expectations, most of the

major capitalist groups, though damaged considerably by the Asian Crisis,

managed to cope with the ensuing monumental political and economic

changes, and now thrive again albeit within a new democratic environment.

In this book Christian Chua...