NGOs, a chance for employment

By Muyanja Ssenyonga

YOGYAKARTA (JP): He is a fresh graduate of remote sensing, which falls under the geography faculty in our august university hereabouts, possessing newly recognized personal strength that belies his naive appearance. Like many others in his company, his career aspirations have undergone a multitude of permutations.

During his early days as a sophomore, Arif (not his real name) reminisced, how he vowed to contribute to the end mankind's paucity of resources by mastering nature's constituents through remote sensing.

But that was five years ago. His perceptions and convictions about life have been reformed, perhaps in line with the political movement sweeping through his society.

He confesses that, much as he would have liked to pursue the job, gaining the qualifications plunged him into such unforgettable experiences, like enduring vehement opposition from squatters following a residential-pattern-air-photographing exercise, that his determination was quashed.

With the advent of reform, Arif began to discover the real world outside campus, ultimately deciding that joining the local chapter of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) was not a bad idea.

Apparently his affiliation with LBH served as a springboard for the profession which he now vows to spend the rest of his life in: managing a non-governmental organization (NGO). The NGO specializes in the distribution of aid to socially distressed people in his home region of southern Sumatra.

This commitment led him to turn down a job offer at the local branch of one private national bank. He was not ready to follow the twists and turns that have punctuated the banking industry over the past two and a half years or so, considering it too nerve-racking for too few bucks.

Arif's experience carries much semblance to that of many graduates and former company employees, especially those facing the wrath of the economic and social changes with little else to fall back on but intuition, ingenuity and craft.

Many are now trying out their luck in managing a not for profit organization.

Democratization emphasizes the greater role of civil society, reducing the state sector to a facilitating role.

It is in anticipation of the increasing role of the people that has sparked the proliferation of NGOs, waiting in the wings to take up the task of monitoring, controlling, advising and directing society's activities.

It is no longer a moot point to note that one of the key factors contributing to the mushrooming of NGOs is the prospect of being one's own boss, only answerable to the providers of aid -- generally foreign-based organizations.

So apparently operating an NGO is tantamount to running one's own business, with the key difference that one does not have to bother about any outlay, as this is covered by the providers of assistance.

No doubt, the fervor is reaching fever pitch. Other people contend that establishing and working for an NGO opens up immense opportunities. This impression is based on the understanding that, since most funds originate from foreign countries and organizations, running such organizations enhances the likelihood of meeting a "good guy" that may introduce the end of suffering experienced under the yoke-crushing deprivation.

Yet others say managing an NGO enables one to handle resources that are out there for anyone interested, and of course enabling one to get full-time employment.

This is not to say that there is not a significant amount of people who establish NGOs with the sole purpose of helping reduce the people's hardships.

Many people have been enabled to smile once again after suffering from the effects of flash floods; many a poor child, mother or father's disability has been remedied thanks to efforts from such organizations; and many repairs to local bridges have brought back a new lease of life to otherwise inaccessible villages.

The downside is not any less spectacular. It is no longer a secret that many NGOs have hardly lived up to their expectations, betraying people's trust in them.

A lot of resources intended for people have ended up on the shelves of stores owned by operators, or even workers, of NGOs; funds have been siphoned off; and some entities have engaged in extortionist activities. These practices have gone a long way toward dispelling the "state is bad, private sector is good" attitude advocated by such people.

One only hopes that both the motivation and movement of NGOs improves so that they are not merely a conduit for selfish ambitions.

The writer is a graduate student at the Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta.