Saving the next generation

If, under present circumstances, the census findings that were made public by chairman of the Society of Pediatricians, Jose R.L. Batubara, last week still fail to jolt Indonesians to come to their senses and start doing something concrete to take their country out of the never-ending crisis, then something must be fundamentally wrong with their conscience.

According to Batubara, at least 6.8 million babies out of a total of 85 million Indonesian babies and children are currently malnourished. Of those 6.8 million malnourished babies 1.8 million are categorized as "poorly nourished" while the other 5 million are "lacking in good nutrition intake".

One indication that a baby is malnourished is that it weighs only 60 to 80 percent of what is considered normal body weight. Data compiled by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare showed that last year some 8 million Indonesians suffered from malnutrition, one million of whom were chronically malnourished.

Other data shows that the average milk consumption of the Indonesian population of more than 200 million is only five liters per capita per year -- far lower than the amount consumed by people in most other countries in this region.

In the Philippines, for example, which has a population of about 70 million, milk consumption averages 19 liters per capita per year. In Thailand, with a population of 59 million, each person consumes an average of 22 liters of milk a year. For Malaysia, with a population of 20 million, the figure is 26 million liters a year.

Many factors contribute to this sad state of affairs. A record of long-standing general poverty is one of the reasons. In the case of babies and infants, parental ignorance is another contributing factor.

But the drawn-out economic crisis and the continuous outbreaks of violence in a number of regions that have forced tens of thousands of families to live in refugee camps in appalling conditions deserves our special attention. These are factors which this nation could have prevented from arising or could have swiftly resolved but have failed to do.

Batubara said he believed the number of malnourished and undernourished babies and children was certain to grow in the future, "if our social, economic and political situation remains in crisis". Unfortunately, with the endless bickering among the various political factions, there is little hope that the condition will improve in the immediate future.

For the average Indonesian this is bad enough. But one can imagine what a never-ending crisis would do to children. Experts inform us that children under the age of five are especially vulnerable to a prolonged condition of undernourishment. Their physical development will be impeded. But of even greater concern is how it will affect their intellect when they grow up.

If it is true that the future of a nation rests in the hands of its children, then it is in the interest of every Indonesian to make every effort to improve the lot of our children. Who knows what much-needed talents we may be throwing away by allowing the situation to continue, not to mention the injustice that we would do to the less privileged among us.

The best thing that this nation can hope for under present circumstances is that its leaders will come to see the paramount importance of placing the nation's interests above all else. Unless they can do so there is little hope that things will improve anytime soon -- for Indonesians in general and for their children in particular.