Prospects, challenges ahead for the region

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.