Govt lacks knowledge in psychology: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): The government lacks the psychological knowledge needed to face the growing amount of social problems plaguing the country, a renowned psychologist said.

The newly inducted dean of the University of Indonesia's School of Psychology, Sarlito Wirawan Sarwono, said the rapid pace of development provoked complex social problems which required greater psychological understanding in determining public policy.

But he acknowledged that compared to 20 years ago the government's awareness to take into account the psychological perspective had improved.

He also added that to cope with the social problems would take some time.

The important thing was the persistent effort by all academicians, including psychologists, to continue research to find out solutions for the social problems, Sarlito said.

He admitted that during implementation, a policy would face many constraints and unexpected factors.

A criminologist of the University of Indonesia, Adrianus Meliala, shared Sarlito's opinion and said that unexpected factors could hinder the theoretical concepts of a certain program.

He cited the presidential instructions on backward villages program saying that the concept of the program was good, but on an implementation level, the program was not as good as the theoretical concept.

Adrianus said the program's noble concept of poverty alleviation was often corrupted by many bitter "ground level" elements.

"The fund has been cut by local authorities and targeted people only receive about 40 percent to 50 percent of it," he told The Jakarta Post.

This has shown that policy-making and implementation were delicate and sometimes placed policy makers in a difficult situation, Adrianus added.

Sarlito was inducted as dean on Wednesday. A prolific writer, the 53-year-old social psychologist is known for his activities for teenagers.

He established in 1984 the "Sahabat Remaja", a forum to help Indonesian youths in their development. Among its programs was discussion on sex education and family planning for high school students.

Sarlito received his doctorate degree from the University of Indonesia in 1978 with a dissertation entitled Differences between Leaders and Activists in Student Movements: A Study. (10)