Ford Foundation trying to build up philanthropic sector

After working for the Ford Foundation here for nearly 31 years, Suzanne Siskel will return to the United States soon. She shared her experience with The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba in witnessing the country's journey and the result of the foundation's scholarship programs for students to study abroad and other programs. Many of them later played key roles in the country's development. The following are some excerpts of the conversation.

Question: Many of our U.S.-trained economists became the architects of Soeharto's economic policies, as many of them received scholarships from the Ford Foundation. How do you see it?

Answer: The Ford Foundation was opened in Indonesia on the invitation of Indonesian President Sukarno to establish an office in Indonesia in 1953. But the country had many needs. And one of them was it needed to have people to go to schools for the country's development, and one of the schools was economics. And one of the major problems in the early days of Ford Foundation's history was the development of economic development training programs.

There were so few people at that time after the revolution who had an opportunity to undertake any kind of higher education. There was a need to train people and training could only be obtained outside the country. The Ford Foundation and two other donors began to provide scholarships, and to develop the program we worked with particular universities. And we are strongly associated with University of Indonesia and Gadjah Mada University. The two universities, and not Ford Foundation, selected promising students. Most of the people went to the United States. They were hundreds.

Many of them got PhDs. When there was change in the government, when Soeharto took office he put in the Cabinet people who were qualified and capable. And many of the people who have been sent abroad for studies were the most capable to help build the new government. But Ford actually had never the intention to train people who would become ministers.

Many of these U.S.-trained economists helped to build the country, but many people accused them and said they were also responsible for the economic crisis in 1997. What is your reaction?

I don't have full answers on it. Many people were involved in the 30 years of Soeharto's era. And I think over the years, some of the people who have been involved in it earlier on had retired. They may still be influential, but they were no longer as influential as they have been in the past. I don't think it is fair to blame any individuals because during Soeharto's presidency he worked with many people. They might point to the policies they recommended, but could have been administered differently. They might point to some advice that had never been undertaken.

What are things the foundation has done and will continue to do to help Indonesia to create a civil society?

I am proud to say that over many years, we supported civil society organizations in the country, long before 1998 (Soeharto's fall from power). We supported, sometimes the conception, the creation of some NGOs, and provided support over the years for them. And what we did from the beginning was to train productive relationships between NGOs and the government and universities. And you had the government agencies making policies and NGOs working with the government to try to ensure the policies were more for the people's needs and desires. And research was conducted by universities or research centers, so there were collaborative relationships in health, forestry, agriculture and other fields that have been involved.

We have tried to support civil society through programs such as culture, reproductive healths, governance or environment development. We also, especially in the last few years, have been working with other donor groups and other civil society groups to train and strengthen the overall civil society sector, especially in terms of more transparent governance; building more credibility for the society, especially NGOs. We have quite a lot of activities now to help non-profit organizations to improve their management, to become more accountable and transparent in the eyes of public.

The other things, in which particularly I am involving myself, is to try and build up the philanthropic sector. It is very common in some parts of the world, but in Indonesia, the translation kedermawanan, is not necessarily with everybody, it is not used everyday. But it does not mean philanthropy does not happen here.

What are you doing then?

What we have done in the last few years was to support a lot of research on philanthropy in Indonesia to find what happens. There are several research organizations that have been doing tremendous works in the country. One is PIRAC (the Public Interest Research and Advocacy Center) and they have been doing research on the scope, size, scale of philanthropy in the country. And particularly, it is looking for the more strategical purpose for social changes, social justice and not just giving money for charity. We are really trying to have an impact on the cause of the problem rather than just deal with the problem itself.

Other research is conducted by the Gadjah Mada University. It has the Center for Language and Culture, which has been coordinating a study that took place in a number of different countries in the world on philanthropy in Muslim societies.

The third partner is Kehati (Bio Diversity) Foundation and we have been working with them, not necessarily just because of the biodiversity, but because they are indeed philanthropic and they are creative. One of their roles is to be a grant-maker, to provide grants for local community groups and local foundations. Kehati began to convene meetings of people in the philanthropic sector with a handful of people, but very quickly there were 150 people that began to participate.

It turns out that almost everybody in this country gives money or some kinds of assistance to somebody else, it does not matter how rich or poor. Very often giving is not formally channeled, but increasingly more money is going into more special kind of channels.