Prospects, challenges ahead for the region

By Dewi Anggraeni

SANUR, Bali (JP): Prospects full of challenge. That was the verdict for the region from participants in this week's Linking Latitudes Symposium at Bali Hyatt hotel here.

Rapid economic growth, while raising the living standard of a significant sector of the population in the region, is also the source of a string of problems which in many ways are mutually linked.

Growth has brought massive demographic changes in the physical as well as social sense. The middle class is continuously increasing, putting an unprecedented pressure on the urban infrastructure as its members flow into city centers. Naturally, consumerism also runs rampant as the demand of the new moneyed middle class goes through the roof. An inevitable victim is the environment.

Since growth does not necessarily favor everyone, there are also human victims, namely those swept onto the wayside by the development traffic. Understandably, these people feel disenfranchised and resentful, which spells a threat to social cohesiveness and stability. They will not necessarily see that the globalization trend that has pushed them out of the main highway has taken on a force and speed of its own, and they either have to scramble back or be left behind.

Something that can assist them in returning to join the traffic is education. In his speech marking National Family Day on Monday, President Soeharto exhorted families to save up for their children's education. It is clear here that challenges for educators are enormous and complex.

Education institutions can no longer feel secure that the current curriculum is the best. In fact, they need to be one step ahead to be effective in keeping up with global trends. Educators are no longer mere teachers, but also social experts, adept at reading trends and prospects.

As for students, learning the basic skills is only the first step. The horizon that opens up after that is almost limitless. They have to learn the skills that can penetrate beyond national and regional boundaries. Only mastery of these skills can equip them with the knowledge of what is to come, and prepare themselves to face the prospects.

Problem

A pressing problem addressed at the symposium was how to prevent the environmental disaster sure to result if development's helter-skelter pace is not checked appropriately. In his presentation, former environment minister Emil Salim showed a chart where the growth of the middle class and the rate of damage of the environment are almost parallel -- and fast nearing the threshold line.

What to do? Armageddon? Total meltdown? Press the panic button and despair? Emil proposed that policymakers and business leaders should look at a different framework.

"We can't stop development," he said as the three-day meeting ended on Wednesday. "However, we can lift the threshold by collectively adopting and implementing different criteria." Emil's proposal involves translating the environmental health rhetoric into real, enforceable policies. Governments should put in place powerful and practicable law, and businesses should lift environment requirements from the bottom to the top of their lists and print them in bold.

Emil said businesses need to operate using specific terms of reference. Waste minimization, quality assurance, and therefore cleaner production should be incorporated into their business plans. In terms of manufacturing, for instance, by using less space, fewer raw materials, emitting less chemical waste, they should produce good quality commodities, which will not encourage their consumers to discard waste products lightly. More importantly, along with the threat of enforceable law, the community needs an atmosphere of businesses educated in environmental imperatives.

Good businesses will understand that maintaining the environment will benefit them, because continuous damage to the environment will eventually render it totally unsustainable, and their operations will grind to a stop. In the short term, it appears that the onus is on governments to provide the legal framework.

In the meantime, for a long-term objective of preparing the next generations of policymakers, business leaders and good citizens for a better future and a better world to live in, the tasks fall squarely on the shoulders of our educators and education experts.

Hopefully, the 250-odd education planners and practitioners from Indonesia, Australia and other countries attending this symposium will be able to pass on their inspired enthusiasm to their colleagues when they return to work. If this objective is achieved, the Asia Education Foundation of Australia will be able to proclaim that their national conference has been extremely successful.