The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan stated that Indonesia is not the Banana Republic when meeting professors and researchers at the Australia National University. What does Banana Republic mean?
Launching from the dictionary.com site, banana republic has at least two meanings, namely:
"a small and poor country, often dependent on a single export or limited resources, governed by an authoritarian regime and characterized by corruption and economic exploitation by foreign companies in cahoots with local government officials,"
"any exploitative government that functions poorly for its citizens while disproportionately benefiting corrupt elite groups or individuals,"
Based on the two definitions above, it appears that the term banana republic refers to a condition in which the government deliberately exploits its citizens to benefit a number of elite groups or individuals.
Meanwhile, launching from theconversation.com site, it is said that the banana republic refers to a small, poor, and politically unstable country that is weak because it is too dependent on one crop and foreign funding.
The term derives from events that took place in many Central American countries, which were economically and politically dominated by US-based banana exporters at the turn of the 20th century.
In the 1880s, the Boston Fruit Company (later to become the United Fruit Company) through the Chiquita company began importing bananas from Jamaica and launched a successful campaign to popularize bananas in the US.
As demand for bananas increased, large companies made deals with governments across Central America to fund infrastructure projects in exchange for land and policies that would allow them to expand production.
These investors often rely on authoritarian governments to protect land concessions and quell labor unrest that can dent their profits.
Sometimes, they actively subvert democracy in other countries in order to reassert their influence. The Cuyamel Fruit Company for example, supported a coup in Honduras in 1911 that replaced its president with someone more aligned with US interests.
Another famous example is the 1954 CIA-orchestrated plot on behalf of the United Fruit Company against Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz. The coup ended the period of Guatemala's first known real democracy.
The close ties between banana exporters and repressive and corrupt leaders ultimately undermined development in the region, exacerbated inequality and left Central American countries weak and mismanaged.
So events like this are then used as the term banana republic or banana republic. How about seconds? Have you understood yet?