RI can learn from India

It is a matter of pride and joy that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has chosen to visit India just after the conclusion of the APEC meeting in South Korea. It is also a matter of pride that every president of Indonesia from Sukarno to SBY will have paid a state visit to India.

As per reports in The Jakarta Post, SBY has sought cooperation from India in the IT and defense sectors. India today is a super power in the software industry, but in the defense industry we are still a small player.

But maybe we are the right size for the defense needs of Indonesia in terms of spare parts, etc. While these two sectors are important to Indonesia, and India can surely become a strong and useful long-term partner, I also hope that SBY finds time to study the great success of India in mass education.

Today, through low-cost (sometimes no-cost) schools run by municipalities and governments, no willing Indian is denied education irrespective of his income. How India has achieved this could serve as a very important guide for a country like Indonesia, where education is expensive and a lot of parents are burdened by the inevitable loans needed to enable them to put their children through school. Cheap books could be another area of cooperation.

A further area of interest is the cost of medical treatment in Indonesia, which is so high that the man in the street finds it very difficult to get proper treatment at reasonable cost and instead has to turn to traditional medicine.

The Indonesian government could study the drug price control system in India that makes it possible to get most essential drugs at reasonable prices. The prices of all medicines are printed on the package and one does not need to pay more than that price.

There are also a large number of dispensaries and there is healthy competition among them. Many dispensaries even provide free home delivery. By comparison, we have to spend a lot of time and money to get medicines in Indonesia. A small Indonesian group could visit India to study this issue.

Though the quality of service may not be 5-star, the ordinary Indian citizen can nevertheless get reasonably good treatment free of cost in many hospitals run by municipal corporations and governments.

While these may be low-profile areas compared to IT and defense, they may be closer to the heart of the man on the street in Indonesia.

K.B. KALE, Jakarta