HIID and Seek

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I am surprised and pleased by the reaction of Harvard's students and some professors against the appointment of professor Anrold Harberger as director of HIID. Pleased because I completely endorse this reaction, surprised because only now will people start to pay attention to HIID.

The HIID (formerly Development Advisory Services) has existed for many years. It has assisted and advised many developing countries on how to develop their economies "the right way." The assistance and advice that have been given are no different than the assistance and advice that have been given by Professor Harberger to the military regime in Chile. The results are also more or less the same. Two old clients of HIID, Pakistan and Indonesia, ended up with the same economic structure as Chile, along with military repression. As a matter of fact, the military junta in Chile is following the Indonesian model, both in its military operation against the Left (the military coup in September 1973 against Salvador Allende was called "Operation Jakarta"), and its model of economic development (the cooperation between the military leaders and the economic technocrats, the "Berkeley Mafia" in the case of Indonesia, "los Chicago boys" in the case of Chile). Thus the choice of Professor Harberger as the HIID's director is not something surprising. It is the logical implementation of the basic economic philosophy that has been followed by HIID so far.

My point is that the campaign against Professor Harberger should not stop short on whether Harberger should be the new director or not. As the discussion on this issue last Sunday (February 17) has shown, it is the basic concept of economic development followed by HIID that should be questioned, not simply the person who is going to be the director. With its present concept of development, HIID has been doing more harm than good for the people whose countries it "helps."

At any rate, I think we have to thank Professor Harberger, whose appointment has brought this issue to the surface. Arief Budiman   Department of Sociology