'Blueprint for Survival': Time to own up to our failings

'Blueprint for Survival': Time to own up to our failings

Dewi Anggraeni, Contributor, Melbourne

Indonesia, A Blueprint for Survival; By Nirwan Idrus;
Published by Center for Strategic and International Studies,
Jakarta, 2003; Paperback, 99 pp; In English

Before you read this book, you need to define your own
personality group, then plan a strategy. If you are of the "right
or wrong, it's still my country" sort, who cannot take criticism,
constructive or otherwise, be on guard.

The book, while unlikely to beat you into a pulp, may very
well beat you into a corner to cower for a while. If you are of
the "happy-go-lucky-'cause-I'm-OK" type, prepare to wince for
once because the book will become a mirror for the wrinkles and
blemishes on your face which you have hitherto tried to deny.

If you are of the kind who is frustrated almost to beyond
salvation at the way Indonesia has been managed and governed,
then this is exactly the book for you. Not only will it throw
light on the sources of your frustration, hence somewhat
therapeutic, but it will also suggest solutions, albeit not in
detail.

You may have thought about them yourself, of course, but it is
generally gratifying to see someone agreeing with you in print.

Economist and economic observer Mohamad Chatib Basri once
quoted a friend of his, saying, "It is so easy being Indonesian.
When something goes wrong, you blame someone. The Dutch
colonialists, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund,
the U.S., Australia ..."

Nirwan Idrus also blames the Dutch, and some other parties who
usually cop the blame, but he does not let anyone in the
Indonesian governing elite through the almost six decades of
independence escape scot-free. And he cannot be dismissed as
being partisan or serving any vested interest group, because he
is critical of all parties.

While many advocates of grassroots development tend to
attribute greed and selfishness to the multinational companies
exploiting Indonesia's natural resources, Nirwan goes further. He
gives examples of greed on the part of Indonesia's own ruling
elite, who have failed to show the quality and capacity necessary
in leaders and have gone ahead lining their own pockets.

This book, with a foreword by Hadi Soesastro and an
introduction by Djisman S. Simandjuntak, is not the ranting of a
disaffected citizen who has been robbed of his fortune or savings
by some corruptor-crony of those in power.

In order to write this book Nirwan rallied a great deal of his
knowledge gained from his extensive education background and work
experience, the most significant and relevant of which being
chief executive and director of the Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin,
New Zealand (1993-1998), International Quality Assurance
specialist with an Asian Development Bank project on engineering
education development in Indonesia (1998-2000) and head of the
Business School of IPMI Graduate School of Business in Jakarta
(2000-2002).

If the title suggests the existence of some satirical humor,
you are not wrong, at least in the early parts. Then gradually it
becomes increasingly ruthless and direct in pointing you in the
direction of the sores which have indiscriminately pockmarked the
nation.

It is sobering to see where Indonesia was compared to Malaysia
in the 1960s and 1970s, when Indonesian teachers were invited to
teach in Malaysia, and now if Indonesia is compared to Malaysia,
who has advanced in leaps and bounds ahead of its supposedly
"senior" neighbor.

Nirwan does not only show what and who are responsible for the
mess in almost every level in Indonesia, but also why, how, and
where things have gone wrong and are still going awry.

In chapter 3, "Natural Resources vs Human Resources", for
example, Nirwan points to the sorry state of Indonesia's valuable
rain forests, where widespread complacency coupled with greed and
badly managed tree felling are depleting these natural resources.

One of the sectors Nirwan feels strongly about is education.
Education in this country has been left in the rut, rendering it
entirely irrelevant and pulling the whole nation backwards. He
goes into detail with instances and examples, and it is hard to
argue with him.

His blueprint for a better future for Indonesia demands a
total turnaround involving the whole nation, from leaders to the
most menial workers. The imagery which comes to mind is a crowd
standing around trying to fix a long, broken train that has gone
off-rail and left to rust. It is a big thing to ask, and a big
task all around.

However, as Nirwan writes, "...as the saying goes, the journey
of a thousand miles starts with the first little step. One must
make that little step first and one must have a destination even
at that very first little step."

Those in the position of power and policy-making may not agree
with his analyses and his blueprint, but at least the book will
hopefully jolt them out of their complacency and inertia, into
arguing with him and offering an alternative -- and acting on it.
In fact, everybody, along with the policy-makers has the duty to
heave this unwieldy vehicle back onto its rail and get it going
again. It is a must read.