RI population worries Fornos

RI population worries Fornos

Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Miami, Florida

In the late l980s, Werner Fornos, president of the Washington-
based Population Institute, visited Indonesia and named the
country one of the most successful nations in controlling
population.

"Indonesia received the Institute's Global Population award
for its achievement in population control," Fornos recalled in a
recent interview with The Jakarta Post in Florida.

Along with members of the Institute's board of directors,
donors and other participants, Fornos traveled to some remote
villages on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Kalimantan.

"I was impressed by the way Indonesia handled its family
planning programs and PKK program, which was the country's most
innovative," he said.

The family welfare movement (PKK) allowed both urban and rural
women in each community to participate in various activities
including family planning programs, sanitation and health care,
religion, social and small-scale economic enterprises.

"Empowering women is one of the best ways to curb the
population boom in any country," Fornos said.

During the Soeharto era, Indonesia had a high-profile
population program with a ministerial level institution handling
it. But over the last few years, Indonesia has been undergoing
significant changes, politically, economically and socially.

After the fall of Soeharto's regime in l998, the Indonesian
government downgraded the office of the state minister for
population to a government agency. The family planning program,
locally known as Keluarga Berencana (KB) has now different
paradigm from government-designed program to a more community-
based program.

"With more than 220 million inhabitants, Indonesia is now the
world's fifth most populous country burdened with various
problems including a high rate of unemployment, poverty and the
possible threat of social disintegration," Fornos said.

He advised that the Indonesian government in cooperation with
NGOs and the community pay serious attention to the country's
overpopulation problem. "We realize that the Indonesian
government is now focusing more on economic and political
matters," Fornos said.

Now, he argued, the world is in doubt whether the debt-ridden
Indonesia has the capability to solve its population problems
along with their consequences.

Citing an example, Jakarta has around 11 million people.
Within the next 10 years, Jakarta will become one of the 10 most
populous megacities in the world along with Dhaka, Beijing and
Bombay. The pressing problems would be lack of public housing,
unemployment, high crime rates and poor environment.

Overpopulation, as occurs mostly in developing countries such
as Indonesia, is spurred by poverty, lack of knowledge and
accessibility to basic needs including health care and education.

"The developing and poor countries cannot tackle this problem
alone. The industrialized countries, the richest countries
especially, have to lend a hand. Yet, they lack commitment to
eradicating poverty," he said.

"There is a tendency to think that if everything is OK for
them, the rest of the world is OK too," he said. The
industrialized world is presently cuddling in comfort.

"The biggest problem facing us today is how could we wake up
the industrialized world to understand the suffering of the half
of the world's population living on less than US$2 a day."

Born in Leipzig, Germany in November l933, Fornos received the
prestigious 2003 United Nations Population Award (UNFPA) in May
for his outstanding contribution to increasing the awareness of
people around the world of population problems.

A former Maryland state legislator, Fornos has held a number
of administrative posts in the state and federal governments of
America. He has been addressing and lecturing on major population
issues worldwide. Author of the book Gaining People Losing
Ground: A Blueprint for Stabilizing World Population, Fornos was
declared by the respected Earth Times magazine one of the world's
50 distinguished people in the last decade in promoting
sustainable development. Since l982, Fornos has been the
president of the Population Institute.

The Population Institute was established in l969 by the United
Methodist Church. But it is no longer affiliated to the Church.
It is now an international organization with an international
board of directors. The institute, which has 172 member
countries, is concerned not only with the United States'
population problem, but also the world's.

"Our biggest impact is in educating lawmakers all over the
world to have a greater commitment to solving population problems
within their own countries and trying to find them help to do
so," he said.

On the best population control programs, Fornos said, "So far,
there is no ideal model in population programs in the world. Each
country must designs programs specific to its characteristics,
culture and religion."

Thailand has done extremely good programs involving the
community without interference of its government. It has managed
to reduce the fertility rate by 67 percent over the last 20 years
through education and information campaigns.

Indonesia also has an excellent population program. Columbia
in South America, North Africa, Mexico, Costa Rica, including
Cuba are among the success stories in dealing with population
problems.

"They have a strong political commitment to solving population
problems, motivation for smaller family sizes and the
availability of the means to control one's fertility," he
confirmed.