Acknowledge poor labor conditions: Scholar

Acknowledge poor labor conditions: Scholar

JAKARTA (JP): A respected demographer urged the government
yesterday to acknowledge Indonesia's less favorable labor
conditions as the first step to improving them.

Aris Ananta of the University of Indonesia said only if the
government acknowledges the disadvantages would conditions be
improved.

Aris said one problem is that the bulk of the Indonesian
workforce is unskilled -- a condition that has prompted doubts
about Indonesia's ability to compete in the world market when
world trade is liberalized.

Liberalization will allow free flow of workers from one
country to another, but would not bring foreign exchange since
migrants were not tourists, he said.

"We should consider how migration will improve workers'
livelihoods," he said.

Addressing a two-day seminar at the University of Indonesia's
School of Economics entitled Accelerating human resources quality
to face the year 2003 and 2020, Aris called on the government to
change their interpretation of unemployment rate statistics.

"Developing countries tend to hide their unemployment rate and
labor conditions when these shortcomings could actually be a tool
to reflect and improve," Aris said.

According to Aris, the unemployment rate does not reflect a
country's economic. If the concern is to eradicate poverty, then
income distribution, productivity and welfare should be the main
considerations, he said.

"Poor people cannot afford to be unemployed," Aris said,
adding that income should not be the sole economic measure
because many people work in the informal sector.

According to 1990 official figures, Indonesia's unemployment
rate was 3 percent.

By the year 2005, when population is about 223 million, the
rate is predicted to reach 5 percent and to rise to at least 8
percent from year 2020 to naturally follow population increases
when the population is 254 million.

"People of working age will have more working options because
they will be more educated and generally more prosperous," he
said.

Other speakers included Minister of Population/Chairman of the
National Family Planning Board Haryono Suyono, Minister of
Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro and Muh. Budyatna,
dean of the School of Social and Political Science at the
University of Indonesia.

Wardiman said Indonesia could improve the quality of its human
resources by focusing on the link-and-match concept of education,
which links educational training programs to projected employment
needs.

"We can no longer think only of education for the sake of
education but we must think about how to gear education in ways
that will meet market demand," Wardiman said.

Umar Kayam from the University of Gadjah Mada, however,
criticized Wardiman's link-and-match concept.

"The link and match concept is too technical, if not
technocratic, an approach and only useful as a stop gap in
industrialized societies," Kayam said.

Kayam said people needed to stand still and ponder the meaning
of globalization before hastily committing to it.

"We have been left out for quite a while anyway," he said,
quoting Mahatma Gandhi's dictum of 'high thinking, plain living.'
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