New chairman vows to revive LIPI

New chairman vows to revive LIPI

By Wisnu Pramudya

BANDUNG (JP): Soefjan Tsauri, the new chairman of the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), moves into his new
office with the classic problem of low pay for his research
staff.

So what else is new? One might ask.

Nothing, but the problem is now so pressing that something has
got to be done soon.

Something will be done, assured Soefjan. He's got a strong
reason to be concerned.

LIPI is supposed to be the country's academic center of
excellence. In recent years, however, LIPI has not only failed to
attract the best university graduates but has also been suffering
a serious "brain drain".

The best university graduates are shunning academic life and
opting to work at private companies where salaries are much
higher.

Between 1987 and 1992, more than 170 researchers abandoned
LIPI for some private institutions citing poor pay. In 1992, the
monthly salary of the lowest ranking researcher was Rp 60,000
($31) per month, while senior researchers received Rp 250,000.

Soefjan, a chemist by training, has put the salary issue at
the top of his agenda as he gets down to the business of leading
LIPI.

"It's so simple. People work because they want to improve
their welfare and increase their self-esteem," he told The
Jakarta Post. "Adequate take-home pay would automatically help
solve other problems at LIPI."

As a state agency, LIPI staff researchers have to follow the
civil service pay scale. And the government this year has only
granted a 10% raise in pay across the board.

In the face of major defections, Soefjan, 53, is now talking
about putting LIPI "on the market". Though privatization is now
being considered by a number of government agencies, Soefjan
plans to take a different approach by making LIPI's research
programs more "market-oriented".

Two plans were drawn up during the chairmanship of his
predecessor, Samaun Samadikun, that aim to bring the institution
a badly-needed cash infusion.

LIPI is banking on the Riset Unggulan Terpadu (integrated top
research program) and the Riset Unggulan Kemitraan (Partnership
Research Program) to attract the attention of big business. The
programs are designed to provide research in areas that will have
more immediate applications by cooperating with the industries
themselves.

Under the programs that started last year, LIPI proposes
research projects to private companies, which are then expected
to share in the costs. The government will provide Rp 2 billion
($870,000) for every research project, and the private sector
will foot the rest of the bill.

"The essence of every cooperation is trust and benefit,"
Soefjan said. "I hope LIPI will appear as a bona fide institution
and attract private sector's cooperation."

Soefjan was involved in the preparation of the plans at the
behest of Samaun.

The chief problem with LIPI and other research institutions in
Indonesia, they found, lied in the fact that only 20 percent of
all research programs conducted in the country were applied in
industries. The other 80 percent were studies that had no
immediate application whatsoever.

Another problem is that research and development is not high
on the list of priorities of either the government, or private
companies.

Indonesia allocates only 0.3 percent of its Gross Domestic
Product for research and development. In contrast, Singapore
allocates 1.1 percent of its GDP and the United States 3 percent.

Soefjan believes the two research strategies, given the
chance, LIPI could make research programs more marketable and
profitable. This would begin to allow LIPI to solve its other
problems while helping the country's research sector out of the
doldrums.

The two plans, however, have not lived up to their promise.
"We haven't been evaluating and monitoring the plans well,"
Soefjan confessed. "That's our weakness."

LIPI is not a complete novice in industrially-applied
research.

The institution used to manage the National Electronics
Institute (LEN) which, with a Rp 1 billion budget, handled Rp 20
billion worth of projects in the fields of satellite and
telecommunications.

Its very success led to the government's decision to hand over
the management of LEN to the Agency for Development of Strategic
Industries, chaired by Minister of Research and Technology B.J.
Habibie. The name of the electronics institute has since been
changed to PT LEN Industri.

LIPI holds no grudges that one of its more successful units
has been taken over and sees it in "terms of national interest,"
Soefjan said.

Soefjan, a father of three daughters, is from the northern
coastal town of Gresik in East Java. He graduated from the
Bandung Institute of Technology in 1969.

He obtained his masters degree from Macquire University,
Australia, in 1972 and his doctorate degree at ITB in 1985.

Joining LIPI in 1972 as an assistant researcher, he is the
first chairman who comes from within the institute. His
predecessors were all picked from universities.

In contrast to Samaun, who focused primarily on biotechnology
and research on the transfer of embryo and tissue culture,
Soefjan has no particular bias.

"I want to see the institute to develop KISS," he said,
referring to the Indonesian acronym for koordinasi, integrasi,
sinkronisasi, and simplifikasi (coordination, integration,
synchronization and simplification).

"Every component of this republic should move together, with
KISS, so that every goal can be reached in the most efficient
manner possible," he said.

He proposed a "performance audit" to evaluate how state
institutions plan and utilize their budgets to determine if the
institutions perform effectively.

On LIPI's independence, Soefjan likened the institution to a
musical instrument. "As a piano, for instance, LIPI has to play
its own tune and improvise, but it has to play in harmony with
the other instruments," he said.

He also spoke of the research that needs to be done in the
areas of Pancasila, the Constitution and the Broad Guidelines of
State Policies.

"With the three pillars, there's no doubt that religion should
be the base of all activities, including research."

A deeply religious man, Soefjan deplored what he called the
"allergy" of western countries to the integration of science and
technology with religious concepts of faith.

"They're just unable to reconcile the two," he said. "For
someone with strong faith, there shouldn't be a problem. After
all, God created science for human beings."