Salam semua, Ada yang memberi komentar Indonesia BoTol. Mungkin karena hanya di Indonesia ada Teh Botol. Untung masih ada seorang wartawan senior yang peduli dengan komentar dibawah ini. Kalau tak ada juga yang terbangun dikatakan BoTol, yah kumaha ngke wae lah. Que sera sera. Emangnya gue pikirin! Oh ya Mas Agus (Guspram), [EMAIL PROTECTED] itu maksudnya arif yang lain yang masih hidup. Orang yang masih hidup aja nggak ada respon apalagi yang sudah meninggal.
abrar
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Commentary on Blueprint for Indonesia's Survival
From: razak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, July 8, 2003 1:39 am
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Jakarta, July 7, 2003
Commentary:
by Abdul Razak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
------------------------------------
Re: Blue Print for Indonesia's Strategic Survival
Dear Pak Abrar Yusuf,
Thanks for the wake-up call. How's Australia these days? Howard is seen
here as an aspiring 21st century's Roman Emperor, dancing tango with the
White House's Genghis Khan to dominate the world. The imperialistic
drive of the 18th century is gaining ground under the neo-liberal
capitalistic ideology, globalisation, and free-wheeling market
capitalism.
I'd like to add up a few points to Riyadi Idrus's review of Nirwan
Idrus's book, which sounds like two enlightened Idrus sharing a common
concern over Indonesia's Unfortunate No Future of her own making and
faults.
Metaphorically, Indonesia is now Asia's Sick Man, "walking in sleep" and
"listening with deaf ears", not knowing how to mend her own mistakes,
yet bragging she's the greatest.
Critics among the grassroots and angry protestors have coined, out of
despair, a new term, "BOTOL" -- "Sudah Bodoh, ToloL Lagi" -- which is a
little bit better than an Idiot -- to describe what they thought had
plagued the country.
People could not expect sound and workable policy directions even from
among the country's "best and the brightest." The magnitude of the
problems seems so huge that a combination of "botols" would not be able
to handle.
The bureaucrats are corrupt. Politicians take well care of their own
personal group interests. Legislators and government institutions passed
laws and regulations that make it harder for people to do things
according to the rules and get in return a legal certainty of their
rights and duties. Corporate CEOs shy away from serving as the Architect
of people's prosperity.
Each and everyone are part of the problems; they have yet to struggle
harder to survive and contribute solutions.
Nirwan Idrus is correct in saying that all these are aggregate results
of Indonesia "without master plans for human resources, education and
training, population management, sound business practices, effective and
efficient bureaucracy, etc…"
Let's take a few cases to illustrate the points:
1) Due to cut in government subsidies, one of state universities in
Jakarta requires students to donate Rp 250 million to get selected into
the medical school under a Special Entry Program.
What kind of doctors would you expect to come out later of this process?
Screwed for money at entry selection, such doctor would then screw
patients harder for money.
Instead of asking a patient, "What seems to be your illness?" the
doctor would, instead, inquire "How much money you have to pay me for a
cure, Sir or Madam?"
Like any other public service professions, medical doctors vowed to
serve people first then only later deserve for pay. Of course, it is
costly to train doctors, but it's the State's duty to provide the budget
for educating people to serve public health and welfare.
Yet, the idea of "screwing the students before they could be accepted"
came out from the office of the university's "best and brightest" policy
makers.
2) Corporate businesses are supposed to act as "Architects of public
prosperity" -- create jobs, give fair working conditions for workers,
develop people's buying power, and pay taxes. Industries wouldn't grow
if there are no buyers and consumers. Therefore, it's the duty of
corporations to help raise people's buying power. Big conglomerates
must respect "division of labor and market shares" -- do not invade the
small companies' areas --, and unlearn their bad habits and try not to
be greedy and deceitful.
3) Applying for a business license from the State agency takes 5 to 6
months, and costs a lot of bribe money spent under the table. In Kuala
Lumpur, you need less than two weeks to get a license to start a
business, and you do it through a Consultant agency.
The policy difference between the two: one is to screw people first,
while the other one--- help people start business so that they grow and
later become tax payers.
Riyadi Idrus is right in suggesting that an Education Master Plan
should be given the highest national priority. Educating and training
human resources are the pillars of progress. Along this line, there's
urgent need to unlearn bad habits and reform the feudalistic cultural
attitudes.
Education is supposed to train people with a set of correct attitudes,
and transform knowledge and skills in order that they could function in
society with human dignity.
Unfortunately, the latest BPS Statistics show more when half of
Indonesian labor force (96 million people) had hardly passed Secondary
Schools. Some 22 million people (males and females) dropped out of
elementary schools (SD).
Since the 1997 crisis, more than 40 million people are jobless, plus
another 35.7 million people living below poverty level (BPS Statistics,
Business News, 28/8/2002).
Of the total, 8 million people have no job at all, which include 500.000
university graduates. Those who could not get jobs live in cities
(Kompas, 27/4/2002).
Every year a fresh one million young Indonesians have no hope to get
jobs. Some of the females -- the future mothers -- even "sell
themselves" for a day's meal.
Many of these uneducated Indonesians, the petty vendors (PKL), earn a
living in the formal sectors at roadsides. With basic entrepreneurial
initiatives, they sell foods, vegetables, etc.
The city administrators should help them get "breathing space" to do
business. But instead, they are chased away "like dirts" from the road
pavement, under the instructions of either the governor or mayor. One
such Governor, who earned Rp.2.4 billion a year or Rp 200 million per
month, plus fringe benefits-- cars, official residence, maids, etc.
(Suara Pembaruan, 20/08/2002, page 19), does not feel sorry for doing
injustice toward the marginalised citizens.
Policy-makers seem to ignore the historical facts that small vendors and
traders could become a country's strong economic base if managed well,
like in Hanoi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and elsewhere. In
Singapore, the third floor of every skyrise building is reserved for
small vendors of lunches and drinks, which cut living expenses for
office employees. In Bangkok, small markets help provide lucrative and
less costly outlets for farmers' products.
Who could refute the fact that "One Step to the Moon began with a series
of Single Steps on Earth"? Why is it so difficult for Indonesian elite
to understand this wisdom?
This case illustrates the point that the bureaucratic administrators and
attitudes of public officials should be totally reformed. It is public
knowledge that the bureaucrats expect to be served by the people; not
the other way round.
Solutions: Cut off the excesses, regroup and retrain the rest,
restructure the whole bureaucratic structure, set clear-cut jobs,
responsibilities and areas for self initiatives, give good pay, groom
them to rise up the ladder or level of competence according to the Peter
Principles of Management, and make them proud of their work in serving
the stakeholders. No other options to empower the bureaucratic
administrators.
How much time do we have to make changes?
Nirwan Idrus says, Indonesia will need 100 years to get the problems
solved and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
If the Government can set aside US$ 2 billion a year to pay for the
overseas debts, it takes 72 years to clear off all the debts incurred by
both the government and private sectors.
Training human resources takes a generation. It should have started
right from the very beginning, 40 years ago.
But no options, do it now, or never. It's already too late anyway.
Now, what's left for the "Botol" to do now?
" Innalillahi wa-Inna Ilaihi Rojiuun".
Stay tuned for the next inputs on:
Topic: Why Indonesia's agriculture fails? What contributions had the
alumni of Institut Pertanian Bogor and other similar teaching
institutions all over the country made so far??
Kind regards,
Abdul Razak
Gedung Dewan Pers (4th Floor),
Jalan Kebon Sirih 34, Jakarta 10110.
Tel: (62-21) 3453-131. Fax. (62-21) 3453-175.
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Dear all,
Mungkin ada yang tertarik untuk membaca buku yang baru saja diterbitkan
oleh CSIS Jkt (resensinya ada dibawah). Bukunya enak dibaca sekitar 100
halaman, masalah yang dikupas semua kita sudah tahu. Yang menarik
penulisnya adalah profesor emeritus dari Australia tapi tidak bermata
biru berkulit putih; dari namanya sudah menunjukan ia orang Indonesia
tapi dari tulisannya terlihat pendidikan, pengalaman dan caranya melihat
masalah Indonesia seperti dia orang putih dari selatan, sedangkan buku
ini ditulisnya selagi dia bekerja di tanah air. Saya kira rekan-rekan
yang pernah dan sedang belajar di Australia ada baiknya membaca buku
ini, terutama rekan-rekan yang merasa perlu atau terpaksa memperbaiki
keadaan ditanah air kita yang sudah sangat semrawut.
Salam, abrar
A BOOK REVIEW
The Book: "Indonesia A Blueprint For Strategic Survival"
By: Nirwan Idrus
Published by: Centre For Strategic and International Studies
Jakarta
2003
"Indonesia A Blueprint For Strategic Survival" is not just a wake-up
call for all Indonesians, it's the bloody daylight itself screaming, and
if they don't wake up after this, nothing will save Indonesia.
In this book the Australian emeritus professor and former Chief
Executive Officer of IPMI Graduate Schools of Business in Jakarta brings
to the fore not just the little evils besetting Indonesia, but in the
words of Salman Rushdie "the great haramzada" himself.
While neighbours Singapore has arrived as a developed nation on the back
of a long put in place National Plan and Malaysia well on its way to
achieving her Vision 2020 future on the back of a similarly crafted and
implemented Strategic Human Resources Plan, at the turn of the
Millennium Indonesia remained, after 56 years of independence, a
backward country singularly characterized by poverty. It remains, in the
author's words "without a master plan for human resources, without a
master plan for educating its human resources, without a master plan for
its population management, for its busines system practices, for its
bureaucracy and other things that would be considered important in
ensuring survival in the ever harsher environment. In short its future
existence is in
question".
To those arrogant Indonesians who do not want to learn from Singapore's
successes and shrugged all comparisons with the City-State with "we're
seventy times bigger than Singapore" Nirwan Idrus pointed out the
irrefutable, "there are countries whose population are about the same as
Singapore which are nowhere near Singapore in terms of their
achievements" and "there are also a lot of countries with the population
the size of Indonesia which are better than Singapore".
There can be no sadder damning indictment to the backwardness of her own
people that President Megawati should go to Singapore for a mere medical
check-up. We don't hear of Australian prime ministers going to the U.K.
for medical check-ups or that of U.K. prime ministers going to the U.S.
for medical check-ups.
The good news is, says Nirwan Idrus, if (and this is a big "if") every
one of Indonesia's 220 million people resolves today to mend his or her
ways then in 100 years we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But to get there they will need his blueprint.
In this book he'd sketched out a possible road map in the form of a
Human Resources Plan incorporating Planning and Management plans, all
designed to produce a New Indonesian by the year 2100. The
implementation will be a tall order, but a start has to be made. As if
not to leave anything to chance or fate as Nirwan Idrus would rather
call it, there is also provided a scenario of sectors and factors of
influence and a series of criteria for selecting people responsible for
the Indonesia of 2100 project.
Intimately related to the Human Resources Plan will be the Natural
Resources Management Plan for the sustainable management of Indonesian
natural resources, for without it before long "the country has nothing
to sell and will be colonized for ever".
One is reminded of that surrealistic (but closer to the truth than many
Indonesians would wish) account in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novel "The
Autumn of The Patriarch"; there wasn't anymore quinine, general, there's
no more cocoa….this country isn't worth a plug nickel except for the
sea….we'll accept it on account for the interests of that debt which is
in excess and which won't be paid off even with a hundred
generations…says the American ambassador in that story.
In a concession to over 50 years of pervasive corruption, Nirwan Idrus
says "natural resources management is not safe in Indonesian hands".
Fortunately for Indonesia technology will help, but only if it can come
up with and implement a Technology Uptake and Application Program. Above
all the blueprint is predicated on Education and Training as the Pillars
of Proper Progress. An Education Master Plan referenced to the Human
Resources Plan has to be a national imperative of the highest priority;
"unless education is sorted out first nothing else will get improved"
the author says.
The author has even provided a Plan to unlearn the bad habits of the
last 450 years. There are precisely four steps involved in unlearning
"which must be carefully recognized in order to achieve the objective of
learning new things".
It is unfortunate that for such an important book designed to play a
pivotal role in the genesis of the new Indonesian hominids, the
editorial staff of the Centre For Strategic and International Studies or
CSIS had been less meticulous than they should have been. Thus, for
example, we find "their own for a" rather than "their own fora", "moths"
rather than "months", " anties" rather than "aunties" all stick out as
sore thumbs. Hadisoesatro, who is obviously not a bilingual, should also
have taken steps to allow others more in the know to vet his "Foreword".
That way we won't see Indonesian mind out of synch with proper English
usage as evident when he writes "Djisman S. Simandjuntak, who is heading
another leading business school in Indonesia". These are precisely the
care and dedication-to task attitude that Nirwan Idrus repeatedly
returns to as the essential quality so missing in present day
Indonesians. Indonesians are already almost half a millennium behind the
rest of the world, they just can't afford anymore thumb nail glitches
like that. But for now at least Nirwan Idrus' exhortations ("If only
Indonesian leaders read them") must not fall on deaf ears.
One could almost picture him telling each and every Indonesians;
If your name is Amien Raiss then you should, as a matter of urgency
raise this in both chambers of the Indonesian Parliament; if you are the
leader of a political party you should adopt this blueprint as party
political platform and get people to vote on it at the next election
thereby increasing awareness of the bleak future for the country within
the community; if you are the ITB lecturers cum consultants with a
Mercedes and a BMW in your garage you should return to campus and do
some decent teaching in the final years of your tenure; if you are the
owner-driver of those Bajaj which had not seen the inside of service
workshops in years you should go to your cooperative and see if you
can't get those new LPG-fuelled Bajaj already introduced on Bangladesh
roads; if you are one of the ulamas running the hundreds of Pesantren
schools around Indonesia you should go to your foundation masters and
get them to adopt a plan in which every Pesantren school should have a
science laboratory and computer pod by the end of this decade; if you
are a taxi driver or any driver for that matter, here's the plan- when
you see one of your colleagues being extorted by a policeman at a street
corner you should descend en masse and harangue the policeman on why you
shouldn't pay and he shouldn't have asked for graft- this is not fancy
stuff, it's already happening in post Arap Moi Kenya; if you are one of
the few communist party members still around now is the time for a
second go at that revolution. Communism works for Vietnam and had
enabled her to catch up with Indonesia within the short span of two
decades; in short everyone should agitate until such time as the
so-called political elite at the highest levels come to bite the bullets
and adopt and implement the blueprint.
In doing so, "Back To The Future (pick your choice of inspiration Prof.
Stephen B. Hawking or Michael J. Fox) and Starting At The End" would be
a powerful slogan and guidance to have.
Honest Indonesians and those genuinely distressed about the state of the
nation, should shed tears were they to read this book. That would be an
auspicious beginning for, to repent one must first accept there has been
a mistake.
RI
20
June
2003
****
reviewed by Riyadi Idrus
the reviewer holds a MSc from Australia's Monash University, had
published widely including contributions to ASIAWEEK and THE FAR EASTERN
ECONOMIC REVIEW and most recently an expatriate Intellectual Property
Consultant in Jakarta.
Thank you!
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
Jakarta, July 7, 2003
Commentary:
by Abdul Razak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
------------------------------------
Re: Blue Print for Indonesia's Strategic Survival
Dear Pak Abrar Yusuf,
Thanks for the wake-up call. How's Australia these days? Howard is seen here as an aspiring 21st century's Roman Emperor, dancing tango with the White House's Genghis Khan to dominate the world. The imperialistic drive of the 18th century is gaining ground under the neo-liberal capitalistic ideology, globalisation, and free-wheeling market capitalism.
I'd like to add up a few points to Riyadi Idrus's review of Nirwan Idrus's book, which sounds like two enlightened Idrus sharing a common concern over Indonesia's Unfortunate No Future of her own making and faults.
Metaphorically, Indonesia is now Asia's Sick Man, "walking in sleep" and "listening with deaf ears", not knowing how to mend her own mistakes, yet bragging she's the greatest.
Critics among the grassroots and angry protestors have coined, out of despair, a new term, "BOTOL" -- "Sudah Bodoh, ToloL Lagi" -- which is a little bit better than an Idiot -- to describe what they thought had plagued the country.
People could not expect sound and workable policy directions even from among the country's "best and the brightest." The magnitude of the problems seems so huge that a combination of "botols" would not be able to handle.
The bureaucrats are corrupt. Politicians take well care of their own personal group interests. Legislators and government institutions passed laws and regulations that make it harder for people to do things according to the rules and get in return a legal certainty of their rights and duties. Corporate CEOs shy away from serving as the Architect of people's prosperity.
Each and everyone are part of the problems; they have yet to struggle harder to survive and contribute solutions.
Nirwan Idrus is correct in saying that all these are aggregate results of Indonesia "without master plans for human resources, education and training, population management, sound business practices, effective and efficient bureaucracy, etc…"
Let's take a few cases to illustrate the points:
1) Due to cut in government subsidies, one of state universities in Jakarta requires students to donate Rp 250 million to get selected into the medical school under a Special Entry Program.
What kind of doctors would you expect to come out later of this process? Screwed for money at entry selection, such doctor would then screw patients harder for money.
Instead of asking a patient, "What seems to be your illness?" the doctor would, instead, inquire "How much money you have to pay me for a cure, Sir or Madam?"
Like any other public service professions, medical doctors vowed to serve people first then only later deserve for pay. Of course, it is costly to train doctors, but it's the State's duty to provide the budget for educating people to serve public health and welfare.
Yet, the idea of "screwing the students before they could be accepted" came out from the office of the university's "best and brightest" policy makers.
2) Corporate businesses are supposed to act as "Architects of public prosperity" -- create jobs, give fair working conditions for workers, develop people's buying power, and pay taxes. Industries wouldn't grow if there are no buyers and consumers. Therefore, it's the duty of corporations to help raise people's buying power. Big conglomerates must respect "division of labor and market shares" -- do not invade the small companies' areas --, and unlearn their bad habits and try not to be greedy and deceitful.
3) Applying for a business license from the State agency takes 5 to 6 months, and costs a lot of bribe money spent under the table. In Kuala Lumpur, you need less than two weeks to get a license to start a business, and you do it through a Consultant agency.
The policy difference between the two: one is to screw people first, while the other one--- help people start business so that they grow and later become tax payers.
Riyadi Idrus is right in suggesting that an Education Master Plan should be given the highest national priority. Educating and training human resources are the pillars of progress. Along this line, there's urgent need to unlearn bad habits and reform the feudalistic cultural attitudes.
Education is supposed to train people with a set of correct attitudes, and transform knowledge and skills in order that they could function in society with human dignity.
Unfortunately, the latest BPS Statistics show more when half of Indonesian labor force (96 million people) had hardly passed Secondary Schools. Some 22 million people (males and females) dropped out of elementary schools (SD).
Since the 1997 crisis, more than 40 million people are jobless, plus another 35.7 million people living below poverty level (BPS Statistics, Business News, 28/8/2002).
Of the total, 8 million people have no job at all, which include 500.000 university graduates. Those who could not get jobs live in cities (Kompas, 27/4/2002).
Every year a fresh one million young Indonesians have no hope to get jobs. Some of the females -- the future mothers -- even "sell themselves" for a day's meal.
Many of these uneducated Indonesians, the petty vendors (PKL), earn a living in the formal sectors at roadsides. With basic entrepreneurial initiatives, they sell foods, vegetables, etc.
The city administrators should help them get "breathing space" to do business. But instead, they are chased away "like dirts" from the road pavement, under the instructions of either the governor or mayor. One such Governor, who earned Rp.2.4 billion a year or Rp 200 million per month, plus fringe benefits-- cars, official residence, maids, etc. (Suara Pembaruan, 20/08/2002, page 19), does not feel sorry for doing injustice toward the marginalised citizens.
Policy-makers seem to ignore the historical facts that small vendors and traders could become a country's strong economic base if managed well, like in Hanoi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and elsewhere. In Singapore, the third floor of every skyrise building is reserved for small vendors of lunches and drinks, which cut living expenses for office employees. In Bangkok, small markets help provide lucrative and less costly outlets for farmers' products.
Who could refute the fact that "One Step to the Moon began with a series of Single Steps on Earth"? Why is it so difficult for Indonesian elite to understand this wisdom?
This case illustrates the point that the bureaucratic administrators and attitudes of public officials should be totally reformed. It is public knowledge that the bureaucrats expect to be served by the people; not the other way round.
Solutions: Cut off the excesses, regroup and retrain the rest, restructure the whole bureaucratic structure, set clear-cut jobs, responsibilities and areas for self initiatives, give good pay, groom them to rise up the ladder or level of competence according to the Peter Principles of Management, and make them proud of their work in serving the stakeholders. No other options to empower the bureaucratic administrators.
How much time do we have to make changes?
Nirwan Idrus says, Indonesia will need 100 years to get the problems solved and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
If the Government can set aside US$ 2 billion a year to pay for the overseas debts, it takes 72 years to clear off all the debts incurred by both the government and private sectors.
Training human resources takes a generation. It should have started right from the very beginning, 40 years ago.
But no options, do it now, or never. It's already too late anyway.
Now, what's left for the "Botol" to do now?
" Innalillahi wa-Inna Ilaihi Rojiuun".
Stay tuned for the next inputs on:
Topic: Why Indonesia's agriculture fails? What contributions had the alumni of Institut Pertanian Bogor and other similar teaching institutions all over the country made so far??
Kind regards,
Abdul Razak
Gedung Dewan Pers (4th Floor),
Jalan Kebon Sirih 34, Jakarta 10110.
Tel: (62-21) 3453-131. Fax. (62-21) 3453-175.
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dear all,
Mungkin ada yang tertarik untuk membaca buku yang baru saja diterbitkan
oleh CSIS Jkt (resensinya ada dibawah). Bukunya enak dibaca sekitar 100
halaman, masalah yang dikupas semua kita sudah tahu. Yang menarik
penulisnya adalah profesor emeritus dari Australia tapi tidak bermata biru
berkulit putih; dari namanya sudah menunjukan ia orang Indonesia tapi dari
tulisannya terlihat pendidikan, pengalaman dan caranya melihat masalah
Indonesia seperti dia orang putih dari selatan, sedangkan buku ini
ditulisnya selagi dia bekerja di tanah air. Saya kira rekan-rekan yang
pernah dan sedang belajar di Australia ada baiknya membaca buku ini,
terutama rekan-rekan yang merasa perlu atau terpaksa memperbaiki keadaan
ditanah air kita yang sudah sangat semrawut.
Salam, abrar
A BOOK REVIEW
The Book: "Indonesia A Blueprint ! For Strategic Survival"
By: Nirwan Idrus
Published by: Centre For Strategic and International Studies
Jakarta
2003
"Indonesia A Blueprint For Strategic Survival" is not just a wake-up call
for all Indonesians, it's the bloody daylight itself screaming, and if
they don't wake up after this, nothing will save Indonesia.
In this book the Australian emeritus professor and former Chief Executive
Officer of IPMI Graduate Schools of Business in Jakarta brings to the fore
not just the little evils besetting Indonesia, but in the words of Salman
Rushdie "the great haramzada" himself.
While neighbours Singapore has arrived as a developed nation on the back
of a long put in place National Plan and Malaysia well on its way to
achieving her Vision 2020 future on the back of a similarly crafted and
implemented Strategic Human Resources Plan, at the turn of the Millennium
Indonesia remained, after 56 years of independence, a backward country
singularly characterized by poverty. It remains, in the author's words
"without a master plan for human resources, without a master plan for
educating its human resources, without a master plan for its population
management, for its busines system practices, for its bureaucracy and
other things that would be considered important in ensuring survival in
the ever harsher environment. In short its future existence is in
question".
To those arrogant Indonesians who do not want to learn from Singapore's
successes and shrugged all comparisons with the City-State with "we're
seventy times bigger than Singapore" Nirwan Idrus pointed out the
irrefutable, "there are countries whose population are about the same as
Singapore which are nowhere near Singapore in terms of their achievements"
and "there are also a lot of countries with the population the size of
Indonesia which are better than Singapore".
There can be no sadder ! damning indictment to the backwardness of her own
people that President Megawati should go to Singapore for a mere medical
check-up. We don't hear of Australian prime ministers going to the U.K.
for medical check-ups or that of U.K. prime ministers going to the U.S.
for medical check-ups.
The good news is, says Nirwan Idrus, if (and this is a big "if") every one
of Indonesia's 220 million people resolves today to mend his or her ways
then in 100 years we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. But to
get there they will need his blueprint.
In this book he'd sketched out a possible road map in the form of a Human
Resources Plan incorporating Planning and Management plans, all designed
to produce a New Indonesian by the year 2100. The implementation will be a
tall order, but a start has to be made. As if not to leave anything to
chance or fate as Nirwan Idrus would rather call it, there is also
provided a scenario of sectors and ! factors of influence and a series of
criteria for selecting people responsible for the Indonesia of 2100
project.
Intimately related to the Human Resources Plan will be the Natural
Resources Management Plan for the sustainable management of Indonesian
natural resources, for without it before long "the country has nothing to
sell and will be colonized for ever".
One is reminded of that surrealistic (but closer to the truth than many
Indonesians would wish) account in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novel "The
Autumn of The Patriarch"; there wasn't anymore quinine, general, there's
no more cocoa….this country isn't worth a plug nickel except for the
sea….we'll accept it on account for the interests of that debt which is in
excess and which won't be paid off even with a hundred generations…says
the American ambassador in that story.
In a concession to over 50 years of pervasive corruption, Nirwan Idrus
says "natural resources management! is not safe in Indonesian hands".
Fortunately for Indonesia technology will help, but only if it can come up
with and implement a Technology Uptake and Application Program. Above all
the blueprint is predicated on Education and Training as the Pillars of
Proper Progress. An Education Master Plan referenced to the Human
Resources Plan has to be a national imperative of the highest priority;
"unless education is sorted out first nothing else will get improved" the
author says.
The author has even provided a Plan to unlearn the bad habits of the last
450 years. There are precisely four steps involved in unlearning "which
must be carefully recognized in order to achieve the objective of learning
new things".
It is unfortunate that for such an important book designed to play a
pivotal role in the genesis of the new Indonesian hominids, the editorial
staff of the Centre For Strategic and International Studies or CSIS had
been less meticulous than they should have been. Thus, for example, we
find "their own for a" rather than "their own fora", "moths" rather than
"months", " anties" rather than "aunties" all stick out as sore thumbs.
Hadisoesatro, who is obviously not a bilingual, should also have taken
steps to allow others more in the know to vet his "Foreword". That way we
won't see Indonesian mind out of synch with proper English usage as
evident when he writes "Djisman S. Simandjuntak, who is heading another
leading business school in Indonesia". These are precisely the care and
dedication-to task attitude that Nirwan Idrus repeatedly returns to as the
essential quality so missing in present day Indonesians. Indonesians are
already almost half a millennium behind the rest of the world, they just
can't afford anymore thumb nail glitches like that. But for now at least
Nirwan Idrus' exhortations ("If only Indonesian leaders read them") must
not fall on deaf ears.
One could almost picture him telling each and every Indonesians;
If your name is Amien Raiss then you should, as a matter of urgency raise
this in both chambers of the Indonesian Parliament; if you are the leader
of a political party you should adopt this blueprint as party political
platform and get people to vote on it at the next election thereby
increasing awareness of the bleak future for the country within the
community; if you are the ITB lecturers cum consultants with a Mercedes
and a BMW in your garage you should return to campus and do some decent
teaching in the final years of your tenure; if you are the owner-driver of
those Bajaj which had not seen the inside of service workshops in years
you should go to your cooperative and see if you can't get those new
LPG-fuelled Bajaj already introduced on Bangladesh roads; if you are one
of the ulamas running the hundreds of Pesantren schools around Indonesia
you should! go to your foundation masters and get them to adopt a plan in
which every Pesantren school should have a science laboratory and computer
pod by the end of this decade; if you are a taxi driver or any driver for
that matter, here's the plan- when you see one of your colleagues being
extorted by a policeman at a street corner you should descend en masse and
harangue the policeman on why you shouldn't pay and he shouldn't have
asked for graft- this is not fancy stuff, it's already happening in post
Arap Moi Kenya; if you are one of the few communist party members still
around now is the time for a second go at that revolution. Communism works
for Vietnam and had enabled her to catch up with Indonesia within the
short span of two decades; in short everyone should agitate until such
time as the so-called political elite at the highest levels come to bite
the bullets and adopt and implement the blueprint.
In doing so, "Back To The Future (pick! your choice of inspiration Prof.
Stephen B. Hawking or Michael J. Fox) and Starting At The End" would be a
powerful slogan and guidance to have.
Honest Indonesians and those genuinely distressed about the state of the
nation, should shed tears were they to read this book. That would be an
auspicious beginning for, to repent one must first accept there has been a
mistake.
RI
20
June
2003
****
reviewed by Riyadi Idrus
the reviewer holds a MSc from Australia's Monash University, had
published widely including contributions to ASIAWEEK and THE FAR EASTERN
ECONOMIC REVIEW and most recently an expatriate Intellectual Property
Consultant in Jakarta.
Thank you!
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