2025-02-21
42 分钟For many countries, a domestic car industry is more than just an employer.
It's a source of pride.
In the late 90s, Indonesia didn't have a national car to rally around.
So Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of the then president and dictator,
set out to change that.
He launched the country's first car company.
Timor Putra Nasional in 1996.
The TV commercial for the first Timor car claimed it was the pioneer of Indonesia's future.
But there was a snag.
The country couldn't actually make the cars.
In its first year, Indonesia's national car company,
imported 40,000 sedans from the South Korean carmaker Kia,
and simply stuck a new badge on the front,
a large letter T. The company was also exempt from the taxes and tariffs imposed on other carmakers,
making a comparable Toyota nearly twice as expensive for Indonesian buyers.
It didn't take long for the other carmakers in Japan, the US,
and the EU to complain to the WTO, which eventually ruled against Indonesia.
And then… May the 14th, 1998.
History will remember this as the day that Jakarta,
one of Asia's great cities, was sacked by its own people.