Lists of ideas for SBY for the benefits of Indonesian society
Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were not blessed with natural resources, but their societies are not poor, and have elevated their standard of living dramatically in last half century. Those societies have done so by investing their time and money into cultivating their human resources. Countries which rely on commodities, like the sub-Sahara Africa,- achieve very little for their societies.
Indonesia should look around, and ask itself which country they would like to take as a model for it society. It can also learn from other countries' mistakes and failures.
For me, it's clear that Indonesia should develop its human resources. This is the only way to elevate the standard of living of the entire society. Indonesia should attract ex-Indonesian scholars and medical doctors who have studied and lived abroad to return to Indonesia. The first step should be recognition of dual citizenship, especially for those people who can contribute to Indonesia from their own knowledge and experience.
Indonesia should have an international standard, state-run, first class university, in every province. These institutes should have international first-class lecturers. To make it happen, English should be declared as language of instruction in all these universities. The management of these campuses should be in hands of people experienced in running first-class universities around the world. These universities will accept the most talented Indonesians and there should be free tuition for them.
Indonesia will allocate some percentage of the income from natural resources to finance free education to all Indonesians (primary, secondary and high schools). Teachers and medical doctors should have periodic tests to see if they are still qualified for their service.
The government should pay teachers and medical doctors much more if they are willing to serve in rural areas. To make it successful, the country should connect all villages to roads, electricity and pipe-water (in this order of priority).
To prevent fanaticism, population explosion, and to eradicate poverty, it was proved worldwide, that the best solution is to have educated mothers. Girls, who have college education tend to have much fewer children, tend to be much less abused by men, tend to marry an educated man, and tend to do everything to make their children successful and contributing persons. In short, investing in the education of girls is an excellent investment for the health of the whole society.
Indonesia should ban a new generation of girls from serving as nannies abroad or in Indonesia. Kids of uneducated nannies usually remain poor.
In agriculture, the government should pay much more attention to the implementation of Indonesian laws regarding pesticides and herbicides. Currently, there is an anarchy is this area, and most farmers have no minimal education about the laws, and about these chemicals handling.
Air-pollution - Indonesia should ask its cars and motorbikes owners to pass an air-pollution test once a year. Likewise, police should remove from roads any polluting car or motorbike.
Indonesia should promote higher education in engineering and scientific fields that can exploit the natural resources of Indonesia. So, Indonesia can export state-of-the-art products.
Government licensing rules, procedures and forms should be accessible in user-friendly format on the Internet. Bureaucracy clerks should behave as civil-service, and not as masters. All procedures should be clear, and transparent. There should be no shortening of queues for money, and no mediators!
There will be an ombudsman for getting public complaints about any civil servant, office or department. The findings should become public. Inefficiency and disorders should be eradicated from the bureaucracy. Long way to go, - looks like SBY needs to implement a revolution in mind-set here. Hope for his success.
(The article published in www.thejakartapost.com)
