You've got to feel sorry for them.Where once,
in 1996, there were ten Indonesian billionaires in the Forbes list, there are
now only two.
Rachman Halim, 58, and his family are the richest with $1.9 billion, but are only ranked 410 out of the 793 listed. I suppose that isn't too bad though, as they seem to be recent members of the Billionaires Club,
nouveau riche if you like.
They run PT Gudang Garam,
Indonesia's largest maker of clove-spiked kretek cigarettes beloved by Indonesians. While still the largest maker, losing market share to fellow kretek rivals Djarum and Sampoerna. Halim's father started the company in 1958; within a year it was producing 50 million cigarettes. Founding of the company still marked with special celebrations. Gudang Garam is a major sponsor of motor sports in Indonesia.
R. Budi Hartono, 65, is at number 428, down from 150, and his income has dropped a bit too. His family has 'only' $1.8 billion. His family runs the Djarum tobacco company. 'Er Indoors contributes to the Hartono family fortune.
One person I would have expected to find is Putera Sampoerna, who is reputed to be worth $2 billion. However the Forbes list
was compiled from net worths ... calculated using share prices and exchange rates from February 13, 2006 and
a year ago Philip Morris took over the Sampoerna tobacco company for $5.2 billion.Back in 1998, the tobacco companies were
the government's largest source of revenue after oil, gas and timber.
PT Sampoerna confidently noted in their 1995 Annual Report: 'Being such an important economic component, and the fact that the industry and the government have, all in all, a good working relationship with each other in the past, make it doubtful that the government will radically change (for the worse) its current policies towards the industry as a whole.'
In light of this situation it is interesting to note that the Suharto family and their business associates controlled
a substantial proportion of the advertising media, including billboards, television and cinema.
In a forum on the
Richest in Indonesia from earlier this year, it is pointed out that military expenditure in 2004 was expected to be $1.3 billion, a sum the tobacco barons could have provided.
Now that I'm a non-smoker I don't want to be sanctimonious, but it is also worth pointing out that the Indonesian tobacco companies have killed more Indonesians than the army ever did. I suppose it's all a matter of perception.
Smokes and mirrors in other words.
PS. As
Yosef Ardi suggests, there are a number of known billionaires who are not listed by Forbes. Why?
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