ABSTRACT

The regional development project in one of the outer regions of Indonesia had been set up in the middle of the 1970s jointly by the Indonesian and Dutch governments.1 After some years it was severely criticized by its western sponsoring agency for its apparent failure to create workable strategies which would benefit the poor. It was said to have invested too much energy in the constitution of a sizeable body of information concerning the region, analysing growing regional disparities, infrastructures, etc. This kind of work had been agreed upon at the inception of the project, as the whole idea of regional development in Indonesia was new and nobody really knew what it implied. Although the idea of collecting a body of information about the region to weigh up different policy options carefully had been regarded as sensible in the beginning, it could not be tolerated any more. And indeed the pile of reports seemed to grow uncontrollably, asking primarily for more research and refinement of data. The relationship between research and action proved to be more stubborn than envisaged. The sponsoring agency decided that the project director had failed to bring about definite action to benefit the poor. He was fired. What had been regarded as a careful planning exercise was now seen as mainly of academic, that is of very little, importance.