In early 1986 Professor Anne Booth, at the time Editor of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies (BIES), initiated a series of BIES interviews with a number of Indonesia's major economic policy- makers of the early independence and New Order periods. It was hoped that these interviews could shed more light on how policy-makers attempted to solve the economic problems they encountered, which constraints they faced, and what compromises they had to make in order to achieve their goals.

From the outset Professor Booth involved me in her project. We discussed the persons who should be interviewed and what issues should be raised in the interviews. We also jointly conducted the interviews until Professor Booth's move from The Australian National University, Canberra, to the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, in 1991. From then on I continued to conduct a series of interviews, always together with another member of the editorial board of BIES.

Besides former economic policy-makers, interviews were also held with former senior government officials and businessmen. Their personal accounts on past economic events, problems, and policies also offered interesting insights and information on Indonesia's modern economic history. The decision to interview successful indigenous Indonesian businessmen first was based on the consideration that they generally faced greater initial disadvantages in terms of business experience, available capital, and access to business networks compared to ethnic Chinese businessmen. It was expected that their accounts would offer interesting information on how they were able to achieve success in their business despite their initial drawbacks.

The selection on whom to interview was quite simple as the number of major economic policy-makers was relatively limited. However, a small number of key policy-makers of the New Order period, specifically Professors Widjojo and Ali Wardhana, could not be interviewed. At the time the BIES interviews were terminated, they both still served as special advisers to President Suharto.