What can Indonesia learn from India?<\/p>\n
Aziz, Munich<\/p>\n
Does the name Lakhsmi Mittal ring a bell? Well, maybe not (and
\nnever mind if it doesn't). First it is a he, not a she. Second,
\nhe is not a Bollywood movie star, though he is certainly a kind
\nof star in his own league.<\/p>\n
Forbes magazine has just crowned him as one of the richest
\npersons in the world with an estimated wealth of US$25 billion,
\ntrailing behind the other two more familiar and already famous
\nnames, Warren Buffet in second place and Bill Gates in first.
\nMittal's story (he is the owner of the largest steel firm on the
\nplanet) marks one of the milestones of the rise of Indian
\nentrepreneurs following the success of many Indian professionals
\nin business around the world.<\/p>\n
Consider Ajay Banja. He started his career in Nestle in India,
\nwhere one of his jobs was getting up at 4 a.m. to collect milk
\nfrom nearby dairy farms. Then he moved to PepsiCo's restaurant
\ngroup and later on joined Citigroup in 1996. He was transferred
\nto the United States in 2000 and became president of North
\nAmerica retail banking two years afterwards. Just recently, he
\nwas appointed as a co-director of the global retail banking
\ngroup, together with Steven Freiberg; a position second only to
\nthe number one in Citigroup.<\/p>\n
We have become used to seeing Indian faces occupying top jobs
\nabroad. The sub-continent's executives, bankers, scientists,
\nwriters, journalists, thinkers, venture capitalists and even
\nmovie stars and cinematographers have been steadily gaining
\nrecognition around the world. Not to mention the massive numbers
\nworking in the Indian IT industry, which has become something of
\na trademark of the new India. The graduates of Indian institutes
\nof technology (IIT) and their counterparts in the management
\nfield (IIM) never have to worry about getting jobs, but rather
\nare more preoccupied with deciding on which job they will pick
\nafter they leave school.<\/p>\n
The list of successes goes on, but what we need to immediately
\nask ourselves is what factors have made them successful and why
\nIndonesia cannot do the same thing. Why? Are Indonesians not
\nsmart enough?<\/p>\n
A tempting question, indeed. But unfortunately, it is at best
\nirrelevant and at worst misleading. The main reason behind the
\nsuccess of Indian professionals and entrepreneurs is that they
\nare more assertive, or talkative, than most other Asians.<\/p>\n
This might be attributed to the language they speak (English),
\nwhich leads, directly or indirectly, to greater self-confidence.
\nPeople can easily ignore the importance of self-confidence and
\nassertiveness, but these traits play significant roles outside of
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Just like many Javanese still call every white foreigner a
\nLondo (literally, a Dutchman), ignoring the fact that he may not
\neven know where Holland is, it is also difficult for people from
\noutside East Asia to tell the difference between, for instance, a
\nJapanese and a Chinese. And being unassertive doesn't help. \"Low
\nprofile, low profit, high profile, high profit\"; that seems to be
\nthe rule in international competition. There is a fine line
\nbetween keeping a low profile and humility, and failure to make a
\ndistinction between the two only leads to greater failure.<\/p>\n
Thus, English language capabilities is certainly an important
\ncontributing factor. In retrospect, the economic and political
\ndevelopment of some former British colonies has been dramatic,
\nand they have managed to take their places among the middle- and
\nupper-income bracket nations, like Singapore and Malaysia. Other
\nformer colonies and English-speaking countries like Australia,
\nNew Zealand and Ireland (the latter has consistently recorded the
\nfastest growth in the European Union for almost the last two
\ndecades), have also performed very well.<\/p>\n
The domination of English as the international language,
\nthanks to the former British empire and current U.S. \"empire\", in
\nthe education, political, economic and cultural fields, has given
\nan advantage to the workforces of these countries. Indonesia,
\nwhich hastily and imprudently scrapped the Dutch language right
\nafter independence, and failed to replace it with English or even
\nArabic, has had to pay a hefty price. Being bilingual or
\nmultilingual has become a basic necessity if one wants to compete
\nand there is no way around this.<\/p>\n
Building image is the next big thing. When the top three
\nimages of Indonesia among people abroad are the tsunami,
\nterrorism and corruption, it takes twice as much work to
\noverhaul these impressions. Another example, Indonesia was in 4th
\nplace in terms of Erasmus Mundus scholarship recipients (nine
\nscholars) in 2004, with India coming 6th (five scholars). While
\nthe number of recipients from Indonesia this year increased to 14
\nscholars, India jumped to the top of the table with 137 scholars,
\nleaving Indonesia well behind in 14th place.<\/p>\n
But one might ask how India can produce the third richest man
\non the planet while hundreds of millions out of its population of
\none billion still live in poverty? Or how in Bangalore, the
\ncenter of the IT industry, poor parents have to bribe health
\nworkers with between $7 and $12 (equivalent to average weekly
\npay) before health workers will let them see their newborn
\nchildren? How can these glaring contrasts be reconciled?<\/p>\n
Well, first things first. We have millions of poor people
\nourselves, and, besides, they are working to solve the problem.
\nSecond, would it be better: a) to have millions of poor people
\nand not have world class executives and entrepreneurs or b) to
\nhave millions of poor people but also have world class executives
\nand entrepreneurs?<\/p>\n
How long will we continue to allow the world to laugh at us,
\nthe fourth most populous country in the world? How come that when
\nthe world talks about \"the new superpowers\" from Asia, it always
\nrefers to China and India, the first and second most populous
\ncountries in the world, but never mentions Indonesia, the world's
\nthird most populous nation? It would appear that our two hundred
\nand twenty million people are nothing more than empty numbers and
\nstatistics.<\/p>\n
China, India and Indonesia all have the advantage of young
\npopulations. Japan and South Korea can now sniff trouble in the
\nair as their populations age and are beginning to ask whether the
\nnext generation will be able to support the elderly when that
\ntime comes.<\/p>\n
While aging populations are a big problem in developed
\ncountries, what is likely to happen in Indonesia? If the present
\nyounger generation is not equipped to get the economy moving, the
\nfuture will be bleak: There will be simply no resources to
\nsustain our current standard of living (which is already low) and
\nto repay our debts. In short, we are talking about a failed
\nnation.<\/p>\n
We can avoid this tragedy by starting to learn from others. We
\noften hear people saying we cannot learn from Singapore because
\nit is just a small country. Others say we cannot learn from China
\nor India because they are too big. Or that America is way too
\nadvanced to be copied. Hundreds of excuses can be made to allow
\nus to put off learning from others, but what's the point?
\nCriticizing others does not make us a better nation. Unless we
\nwork as hard as they do, we will end up on the road to nowhere.<\/p>\n
With regard to bilingual education in Indonesia, some experts
\nhave been debating the initiatives taken by some schools, or lack
\nthereof, as summarized by Pieter Van Der Vienhart (The myth of
\nnational plus schools in RI, The Jakarta Post, Sept. 3, 2005). To
\nwhich we might want to recall the old adage, \"If you wait for
\neverything to be perfect, you will never get anything done.\"<\/p>\n
The writer is a postgraduate student in sustainable resource
\nmanagement, Technical University of Munich. He can be reached at
\naziz9672@yahoo.com.<\/p>",
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