New leaders must promote education

New leaders must promote education

Simon Marcus Gower, Jakarta

The first direct elections of a president in Indonesia are
almost here and the candidates have often been heard to talk up
their positions on human rights and the growth of democracy for
this nation.

This type of rhetoric is understandable and quite familiar to
election campaigns. All over the world candidates will use such
language. They are, after all, themes that are always likely to
be attention getters and ultimately vote winners. But behind all
the rhetoric it is important for there to be true content.

The noble notions of defending human rights and promoting
democracy cannot be realized by the rhetoric and promises being
made alone. To have any hope of achieving these high ideals the
candidates and the eventual winners of the race for the positions
of vice-president and president will have to show their strength
of commitment and dedication to these ideals.

Perhaps there can be no greater or more convincing a way to
signify their commitment and dedication to the rights of people
and a democratic state than through their visions and strategies
for education.

Education can, after all, be the seed-bed of social justice
and the nurturing of a truly democratic society and indeed a
truly democratic "political elite".

Education, if properly strategized and rendered, can be the
very heart and soul of justice and democracy. If human rights are
to be realized and a democratic society to be reached and upheld,
it is essential to recognize that a community must have interests
that are shared, that are mutually tolerated and respected and
ultimately accommodated and, in so far as is possible, achieved.

A genuinely and successful democratic society must have a
commitment to education and likewise education ought to have a
democratizing effect that will help to sustain the democratic
society.

A truly democratic society effectively sets aside the notion
of external and imposed authority in favor of a voluntary and
shared interest.

Democracy is not just a form of government and it should not
be seen as acceptable for an electorate to elect a government or
president only to later step back and point the finger of blame
and claim a failure of the democratic process.

Every individual has an input and part to play in the creation
and sustenance of democracy. Democracy, when addressed
appropriately in this manner, becomes a way of life that can be
liberating and so assuring of human rights and justice. The
inclusion of individuals in a shared interest means that the
individuals have to check their own actions and interests against
those of others.

Democratic "living", then, becomes an aspect -- even an
attribute -- of our ability to get along and work together. We
may have our differences but these need not stand in the way of
our abilities to co-exist in a civilized and peaceful society --
a society that can ultimately and genuinely be called "educated".
All of this, seemingly highly idealistic, existence can be linked
to the planning and provision of and for education.

Education can simultaneously fulfill the broad needs of the
society or nation and the, (in theory anyway), narrower needs of
the individual.

Indeed there have been many historically and are many today
that have powerfully argued that education can do both of these
things; not least because the development of the individual can
be closely linked with the aims of humanity as a whole and with
human progress.

It is today, perhaps, hard to think of governments being
predicated on the notion of their duty to meet the educational
needs of a nation. In today's complex and quite deeply insecure
world, governments would probably be more readily associated with
notions of keeping the nation safe from the threat of terrorism.

It is far more familiar, unfortunately, to consider a
president as a commander-in-chief of a nation's armed forces. But
we should at least hope and really ought to expect a president to
be dedicated to leadership in education.

As the leader of a nation a president has, most likely above
all other considerations, to have a mission and vision for the
future of the nation. Such mission and vision surely has to come
significantly from the realms of education which are, ultimately,
the realms of helping in preparing and equipping future
generations.

Education has an irrefutable social function. Sometimes this
function has been based on religious or moral grounds. Other
times it has been based on more utilitarian or simply academic
development grounds. However, from whatever starting point the
basis of education is conceived, there has to be a realization
that education is process of the young or as yet uneducated being
developed to participate and contribute to the society into which
they will be entering.

The writer is Executive Principal of the High/Scope Indonesia
School. The opinions expressed above are personal.