Lippo goes to high school - Indonesia's Lippo Bank and others provide propaganda pamphlet to US public high schools: includes a related article on Massachusetts' proposed bill to bar from state contracts, firms dealing with Indonesia - Cover Story

Progressive, The, May, 1997 by Eyal Press

Check your kids' curriculum. For the past two years, students in classrooms across America, grades seven through twelve, have been learning about the wonders of Indonesia, courtesy of the Lippo Bank, the U.S.-Indonesia Society, the Indonesian government, Mobil, Texaco, and a host of prominent U.S. and foreign corporations with intimate ties to the Suharto regime.

Introducing Indonesia is a bright, glossy teachers' guide produced by these interests and distributed by Scholastic Incorporated, one of the world's largest education publishers.

It has been sent to more than 77,000 social-studies teachers and their more than ten million students.

The guide is replete with multicolored charts, maps, and suggested lesson plans. It also comes with a full-size, fold-out poster, depicting Indonesia as a land of exotic animals, lush rainforests, and modern satellites and industry. Both the poster and the teachers' booklet are adorned with the corporate logos of Mobil, Texaco, Chevron, and the Lippo Bank.

The Indonesian government describes the booklet as an important "step toward international understanding."

Wayne Forrest, president of the American-Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, says the guide will "increase understanding of a country that has long been a solid friend of the United States and a nation that offers a great number of opportunities for American business."

The guide offers teachers handy advice. "Point out to students that some people fear the establishment of open trade between the U.S. and Asia, where labor is so much cheaper than it is here. But a recent Business Week editorial has said: `Already some three million Americans are employed as a result of U.S. exports to countries of Asia and the Pacific Rim.'"

Teachers are next instructed to have students "look at household and personal items (and inside their sneakers) for a MADE IN INDONESIA label. Sneakers are produced in Indonesia, the booklet explains, not because workers there are paid next to nothing, but on account of another often overlooked comparative advantage--namely, that a "crucial raw material used in manufacturing sneakers [i.e., rubber] is found in Indonesia."

Students also receive geography lessons. On page seven, a map of Indonesia is situated directly above a map of the United States, with all of Indonesia's provinces shaded one color. East Timor is shown in the same color. The map gives no indication that the territory is a separate country that has been illegally occupied for more than two decades.

Another lesson focuses on Indonesia's "natural wonders," including "the world's second largest concentration of rainforests . . . [that] host over 500 mammal species." The guidebook fails to mention that one of its corporate sponsors, Freeport-McMoRan, a U.S. mining company, recently had its U.S. government insurance revoked because it "has degraded a large area of lowland rainforest" in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, posing "unreasonable or major environmental, health, or safety hazards with respect to . . . the surrounding terrestrial ecosystem, and the local inhabitants."

On the inside cover of the teachers' guide is an exuberant thank-you note from Indonesia's minister for industry and trade, Hartarto. He salutes "American and Indonesian private businesses" for their much appreciated "gift to American students and their teachers."

In small letters on page five, the guide expresses further gratitude for advice, counsel, and sponsorship to Mobil, Hughes, Freeport, Lippo, and various Indonesian ministers,, including Arifin Siregar, the current Indonesian ambassador to the United States.

In a recent newsletter, the U.S.-Indonesia Society proudly highlights a touching letter it received from Alex Bowe, a third-grader in Maryland, who requested a copy of its materials. He'll be getting a map in the mail, depicting Indonesia and East Timor as one happily united territory, governed by a "just and civilized humanity" that, as the teachers" guide promises, guarantees "social justice for all."

Ernest Fleishman, a senior vice president for education at Scholastic, says the company has recently decided to stop distributing the material. "Our editorial standard requires us to produce and present information which is factual, accurate, and appropriate.... When you're trying to do sponsored materials, the country's interest and our own conflict."

Maybe Scholastic should point that out to 77,000 classrooms full of American kids.

RELATED ARTICLE: Sanctions in Massachusetts?

On February 27, 1997, the state of Massachusetts held hearings on legislation that would bar companies doing business with the Suharto dictatorship from holding contracts with the state. Massachusetts has already passed a similar sanctions hill against Burma, but the measure against Indonesia, a major U.S. trading partner, would have a far greater impact.

Testifying for the bill were numerous human-rights advocates and critics of the Suharto regime, including Jose Ramos-Horta, Congressman Patrick Kennedy (Democrat of Rhode Island), Brenda Bateman of the Investor Responsibility Research Center, and Abigail Abrash of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. "In considering the human-rights practices of the Indonesian government," Abrash explained, "it is critical to recognize that abuses are occurring throughout the archipelago, not just in East Timor."