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.