Entrepreneurial spirit necessary for Indonesians to end cycle of poverty

Entrepreneurial spirit necessary for Indonesians to end cycle of poverty

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Singapore

Most people want to make money and become rich. But not everybody
can be an entrepreneur. It's unfortunate that too many people
rely on finding employment provided by others instead of creating
it for themselves.

If Indonesians had an entrepreneurial spirit, the country
would not necessarily have to work so hard to fight against
poverty, and could even be one of the world's most powerful or
richest nations.

Entrepreneurship encourages businesspeople, politicians and
other individuals to be creative and innovative in countering
challenges and turning them into opportunities useful for their
lives.

But sad though it is to say, such a spirit does not constitute
a vital force in this country as its education system has so far
produced idle people who are largely reliant on others to live or
survive.

The lack of entrepreneurship on the part of Indonesians has
helped bring the number of the country's unemployed to around 40
percent of its population of 210 million people.

The jobless include around 300,000 graduates from around 2,000
state and private universities, who are currently in "disguised"
unemployment, according to data from the Ministry of National
Education.

Instead of trying to create jobs for themselves and others,
unemployed graduates mostly expect job vacancies in state and
private agencies.

During the current economic situation, where the crisis has
continued unabated since mid-1997, finding a jobs is a matter of
extraordinary luck for fresh graduates, especially those from
unpopular or less reputable colleges.

With Indonesia home to more than 210 million people -- making
it the world's fourth-largest country -- with poor skills, it is
impossible for the population to rely on the government to
provide them with jobs.

Director of institutional guidance and public empowerment at
the Ministry of National Education Sudharmadi W.S. admits
students here are not encouraged to become entrepreneurs to
provide for their future livelihood.

Entrepreneurship is a subject still out of bounds within the
national education system, he asserts.

"Leaders with strong entrepreneurship skills are not born but
should be created and nurtured through education.
Entrepreneurship is a talent that can be taught in schools," he
said.

What is worse is that a spirit of self-reliance, which every
student requires in order to face the globalized world after
completing school, is not taught in school either.

"Our education is aimed mainly at developing and sharpening
people's minds. But it is not directed at how to make them
creative or innovative in facing the future," Sudharmadi said
while attending the fifth Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative event
held from July 20 through Aug. 2 in Singapore.

"We need to review our national education system so as to be
able to cultivate entrepreneurship among our young leaders," he
added.

With only about four percent of the state budget allocated for
education, Indonesia appeared not to be serious in improving its
human resources. The figure was far below the 20 percent of the
budget allocated by Malaysia for the same expenditure.

Furthermore, only three million, or eleven percent of at least
27 million Indonesians aged 19 to 25 could afford or were
interested to study at university.

A lack of entrepreneurial spirit has also sparked concern
among people from other Asian countries, present at the Hitachi
forum, which brought together 24 top tertiary students from
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand.

The students recommended that Asia's education system and its
cultural dynamism be reviewed so as to foster the spirit of
entrepreneurship among Asian people.

"Countering outdated mind-sets and antiquated values that have
hindered the development of entrepreneurs within Asia would
require a shift of fundamentals in the Asian mind-set," said
Marie Grace Tee Vera Cruz, a student leader from the Philippines.

The 1997 financial crisis prompted Asian governments to
realize that foreign direct investment was neither sustainable,
nor a reliable source for their economic development.

That's why promoting indigenous entrepreneurship would be an
"important key" to economic growth in Asia, the select few
students said.

"To grow economically, nations in Asia must accord sufficient
importance to cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit in their
respective countries, and eventually, collaboratively in the
region," said Grace.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's adviser for job
creation in agriculture and rural development Luis P. Lorenzo has
called on Asian young leaders to play a pivotal role in
advocating an entrepreneurial drive to help their countries
pursue economic prosperity that could lift more people out of
poverty.

"It (entrepreneurship) encourages visionaries to create
opportunities out of obstacles. It navigates through traditional
paradigms and crafts innovations that respond to current global
realities," he told the US$400,000 Hitachi forum.

The UN estimates that 1.2 billion people, 800 million of them
in Asia, are living below the poverty line. They have less than
US$1 per day on which to survive.