Family planning board counts on educated elite
Family planning board counts on educated elite
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Population and Chairman of the
National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Haryono Suyono urged
educated families to help the government in guiding other
families towards prosperity.
At the opening of a consultative forum of non-governmental
organizations, Haryono said his office has started to focus on
urging families to take on roles as the "smallest unit" of
development.
They are expected not only to accept government campaigns on
family planning programs and prosperity, but also to pass on to
other families what they have gained and believed from
implementing such campaigns.
Before the second long-term development program, which started
last April, the smallest units of development were NGOs and
various government institutions, he said.
"There are currently some 40 million families in Indonesia. If
10 percent of these can act as units of development, it is
already a miraculous achievement," he said.
Role models
Haryono explained that one of the aims of the consultative
forum is to identify the types of families who could become role-
models. The forum can also discuss the application of the legal
bases and theories on family planning programs.
The two-day forum is part of the conceptualizations of several
legal milestones, he said.
The passing of Law No. 10, 1992 containing, among others, the
definition of a prosperous family according to Indonesian norms,
led to the setting of a National Family Day for June 29.
The passing of Governmental Decree No. 21, 1994 containing
guidelines for the development of families towards prosperity
also resulted in a "Prosperous Family Development Movement" which
began on June 1.
"This consultation should find ways of applying these legal
milestones in the life of families in the community," Haryono
pointed out.
Participants of the forum consist of representatives from
various NGOs as well as religious bodies such as Muhammadiyah and
the Communion of Churches in Indonesia.
He said the consultations are also expected to provide input
for the upcoming International Conference on Population and
Development scheduled for September in Cairo, an event which
President Soeharto is expected to attend.
In the conference, Indonesia will mobilize support for the
male-female partnership on an equal basis, a concept that goes
further than simply the promotion of women's rights or the
elimination of sexual discrimination.
Indonesia will also be pushing for its definition of a family
as one which fits the Indonesian norms of a prosperous family,
meaning that it must also be able to strengthen national
development, provide prosperity as well as spiritual and physical
security to its members, he said.
"There is a difference in the Indonesian definition of family
and other countries', such as those in the Western world. For
some of them, a family can be defined as one parent and children,
or a homosexual couple and children.... we don't abide by that
definition," Haryono said.(pwn)