Indonesia facing difficult challenges

By Juwono Sudarsono

The following is an excerpt of a paper presented at the Asia- Pacific Forum meeting on May 20.

JAKARTA: Indonesia's second long-term development (1994-2019) promises to be far more challenging than the first (1969-1994) 25-year stage.

During the first phase, Indonesia's external and internal environments were favorable to the country's determined efforts to press ahead with national development based on political stability, economic growth and social equity.

Externally, the international and regional environment enabled the government to benefit from reconciliation with Malaysia and Singapore, initiate the creation of ASEAN, and secure favorable external economic assistance from an international aid consortium.

The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and private multilateral agencies did their share in providing timely assistance that Indonesia needed at crucial phases in the development process.

From the outset, it was clear that Indonesia's transformation from a regional recalcitrant into a regional peacemaker, its strategic location in maritime Southeast Asia, its vast pool of natural resources and its striking potential as a vibrant market were crucial factors in the sustained focus and assistance given to the country's national development.

The challenge for the 1994-2019 period is that at the present stage of international relations, those favorable factors have receded into the past. The post Cold War era has underscored the rise of acute competition for investments, trade and market access from other regions of the world Eastern Europe, China, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, even from Latin America.

Domestically, the success of Indonesia's concentration on internal economic reconstruction has given rise to heightened sense of urgency that the nation must give more attention to perennial problems of defining central authority's relationships with the periphery particularly in Aceh, Irian Jaya and East Timor.

Differences in the scope, speed and intensity of globalization of production, of investment, of financing and of marketing have exacerbated relations between the modern sector in manufacturing, mining, services and agri-business with the more traditional sectors of agriculture, fisheries and village-based small scale industries.

Centralized patterns of political and economic decision-making must give way to gradual decentralization and regional autonomy.

More than ever, central government must provide the impetus so that archetypical industrial centers such as West and East Java facilitate a higher level of integration with the world economy to the eastern half of Indonesia.

Political, commercial and transportation centers of "prime cities" such as Medan, Palembang, Pontianak, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Semarang, Surabaya, Ambon and Jayapura will have to function effectively as intersecting points in a wider network of exchanges of goods, services and qualified personnel across the archipelago.

Key cities and resource-based provinces in the outer islands increasingly interact with growth poles in the Asia-Pacific region.

The rise of an emergent middle-class (estimated to be 18 million) will increasingly lead to more assertive political demands for participation not only in the urban centers of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and Kalimantan but also in the three outlying areas of North Sumatra, North Sulawesi and Irian Jaya.

Political and administrative institutions more specifically local bureaucracy and regional parliaments will have to bear the twin burdens of good governance and timely delivery of public goods: physical safety, ports, roads electricity, water-supply, health care, primary and secondary education.

Culturally, Indonesian language, literature and arts will have to flourish if they are to retain their vital roles as an essential palliatives in maintaining Indonesia's unity and cohesion in the face of increased commercialism.

Likewise, the Indonesian media will have to be more committed to play an increasingly strategic role as public educators as well as flourishing business enterprises. Regional universities welcome the challenge to become centers of public education so that human resources development expand across a wider spectrum of the archipelago.

As the speed of information, ideas and commercial exchanges spur wide-ranging structural changes in Indonesian society, cultural impulses must be encouraged to provide elixir toward increased freedom and the growth of civil society.

No less important, inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony must retain their vital roles in underpinning an increasingly vibrant and self-confident Indonesian society, leading to progressively larger freedom and protection of human rights.

There will be need for periodic adjustment of the scope and degree of the political role of the armed services, though its centrality in Indonesian political life will continue until civilians improve their modes of leadership recruitment and organizational discipline.

As the nation as a whole becomes more complex and specialized, much of the technical and managerial roles which have been undertaken by Indonesian officers at various levels of government will naturally be devolved to their civilian counterparts.

Younger Indonesians, who now make up more than 40 percent of the population, take Indonesian unity and cohesion for granted. Inevitably, there are demands for greater participation in decision-making based on merit and professional competence.

Indonesia will continue to care social, economic and political problems that will be never-ending issues of contention between officials and non-government organizations at home and abroad; facing up to these issues fairly and squarely is part of our maturing process as a nation.

Striking a balance between economic efficiency and political imperatives will continue to test the ingenuity of leaders in national and provincial government. As the western half growth triangles (Singapore-Johore-Riau, SIJORI; the Indonesia-Malaysia- Thailand, IMTGT) make economic sense, the East ASEAN cooperative scheme must ensure that there is a complementary relationship to strengthen Indonesia's sense of national identity and shared prosperity.

An underlying problem, population growth cuts across a host of other challenges such as youth unemployment, disputes over land titles, unrest in industries increasingly pressured by international competition, the all-important role of women in caring and preparing for the next generation of leaders.

There is also the problem of matching population policy with economic growth and protection of the environment; sustainable development is an inter-generational commitment.

Intense globalization and regionalization has heightened the dangers of fragmentation among and within nations: ethnic animosity, racial antagonism, narrow provincialism, linguistic assertiveness and religious fanaticism.

These intra-nation conflicts can spill over to regional instability, leading to outbreak of hostilities among nations.

All Indonesians are determined that the nation will remain united politically as well as sustain adequate economic growth.

Our doctrine of national and regional resilience make it mandatory that we anticipate political, economic, cultural and technological shifts of power affecting our will to provide substance into political independence.

As member of ASEAN, chair of the non-aligned movement and host of the next APEC summit, we are as dedicated to international peace and security, just as we are bound to our commitment to establish an equitable and prosperous Indonesian nation.

Dr Juwono Sudarsono is the Dean of the Faculty of Social & Political Sciences of the University of Indonesia.