Former minister Emil Salim, a champion of the environment
Mehru Jaffer, Contributor, Jakarta
Presidents come and presidents go but the work of Professor Emil Salim will go on forever. The 70-year-old former state minister for population and environment left Soeharto's government in 1993 but he is still on his toes trying to find ways to make ecology and economy compliment each other.
He dreams of the day when industry will be agro-based, tourism will enrich the ecology and the harvest of development will benefit the maximum number of people, instead of just a small minority.
He gives the example of a rainforest where life is rich only because every creature, from the tiniest to the mightiest, depends for its survival upon each other. He terms diversity as the strength of the ecological system, adding that this is true of human society as well.
"The more diverse a society is, the stronger it is. It is very important to recognize diversity and the inter-dependency of each one of us on the other," the bird-like Professor told The Jakarta Post before flying off to Brazil for yet another meeting on sustainable development.
As the spirit behind the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation and the Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute, Salim is trying to get countries rich in rainforests like Indonesia, Brazil and Zaire to come together under the umbrella of an international organization similar to OPEC.
Out of the "Unity in diversity" slogan coined by the country's founding fathers, unity is stressed all the time but the benefits of diversity are still to be recognized here, he says, adding that he likes the idea of a thousand flowers always in bloom, everywhere.
The most pertinent question before Indonesians today is how to live peacefully with each other in diversity? A homogenized world is a colorless one as far as Salim is concerned, because different languages, food and clothes make life not just interesting but also give strength to a society.
As a champion of the environment, he is not against development. It is possible to be prosperous without damaging the environment. He is saddened to watch the destruction of the environment when there is no need for such thoughtless cruelty. This is happening as the greed of ignorant people is being allowed to walk all over the basic needs of the world.
He is against an export-based economy where a country is stripped of all its wealth in raw materials. Instead of logging the forest and selling wood he would like to see medicine made from the bark of the relevant tree and exported.
"Make cosmetics out of fish oil and sell the finished product instead of emptying the waters of all the fish, " he explains.
Nearly four decades ago when most other developing countries like India, Iran and Turkey were into heavy industries, Indonesia decided to modernize its agriculture.
The country was self sufficient in rice by 1983 and only then opened its economy to industry. At that time, policy-makers like Emil Salim were determined not to repeat the mistakes made by countries that had industrialized.
Despite lessons in pollution control, Indonesia's population and consumption are increasing, deforestation is rapid and fresh water supplies are continuing to diminish.
Indonesia is a country rich in biodiversity with 10 percent of the world's flowering species, 12 percent of all mammal species and about 47 distinct ecosystems. But today, the country has the longest list of endangered flora and fauna species and is facing a serious depletion of its biodiversity, due to the overexploitation of natural resources and inappropriate agricultural policies.
When asked how the country got into this mess, Salim, the environment minister between 1978 and 1993, points out that the environment is still treated as an ad hoc issue both by national, as well as international financial institutions.
Open market moguls and politicians on the lookout for quick returns consider fresh air, beautiful landscape and thick forests as free commodities, which belong to no one and are therefore worthless. There is no immediate profit in taking care of the environment.
So forests have vanished at an estimated rate of three million hectares a year, the highest deforestation rate in the world. Air pollution caused by automobiles continue to emit lead pollution at 1.3 micrograms per cubic meter in Jakarta, above the World Health Organization's (WHO) limit of between 0.5 and 1.0 micrograms per cubic meter.
Water pollution is yet another serious problem as the South China Sea is one of the world's busiest international sea-lanes with more than half of the world's supertanker traffic passing through the region's waters. Industry has polluted water and, together with the increase in population and decrease in fresh water supplies, has placed great stress on people and the environment.
The main constraint in the implementation of sustainable development in Indonesia has always been the lack of accountability and good governance. So much forest is felled and intentionally set on fire, yet nobody is held responsible.
Even timber tycoon Bob Hasan was not jailed for destroying the forest, but for other crimes he committed. What the people in power must do is enforce the rule of law. The existing laws are very sound but they have to be implemented. Otherwise, Salim says, environmental concerns will continue to be treated merely as jargon.
Salim suggests a more holistic approach to policy-making where no ministry is considered more powerful than the other and the opinion of civilians and non-governmental organizations are included in the decision-making process.
Salim was selected by former president Soeharto as an advisor in the 1960s, along with a group of mostly American educated technocrats, dubbed "the Berkeley mafia". He fell out with Soeharto in 1993 when the more high-tech ideas and macro approach of B.J. Habibie was favored over the bio, and agro-based, micro- level concerns of Salim.