Social scientists ask to be included in future planning

By Dwi Atmanta

MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): Indonesian social scientists called on the government to pay greater attention to social factors when forming future development programs.

The scientists said Saturday they could help facilitate development while minimizing social costs by carrying out social cost analyses and environmental impact assessments for the government.

Wrapping up their four-day congress and seminar, the social scientists said that early warning methods needed to be devised to detect potential social problems.

Azis Saleh, a member of the seminar's steering committee, told The Jakarta Post that professionalism in social sciences requires an ability to develop methods to predict and settle social disturbances.

The Indonesian Association of Social Sciences Development agreed at the conclusion of its congress to assign Azis, who is a professor of sociology at Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra, and several colleagues to draw up detailed recommendations. The other scientists were the association's new chairman, Mulyanto Sumardi, and his predecessor, Alwi Dahlan, Usman Pelly and Amru Nasution, both from Sumatra Utara University here.

The recommendations will be submitted to the government and other institutions before the Broad Guidelines of State Policies are drafted by the People's Consultative Assembly in March next year.

Azis admitted that the congress was to some extent responding to President Soeharto's criticism of the scientists when he opened the gathering on Tuesday. Soeharto accused social scientists of issuing what he called unsubstantiated, hasty analyses. They were also criticized for not coming up with analyses that could help prevent social problems.

Azis accepted the rap, but said that social scientists had prepared "anticipatory analyses which could be right but are not yet scientifically complete enough to determine the roots of the social problems."

"Many causes are behind social problems. Hence, we need an interdisciplinary analysis," he said, citing a series of ethnic and sectarian conflicts believed to be triggered by socioeconomic disparities.

Azis believed that the riots were the consequences of development overlooked by the government. "This is why it's important to involve social scientists when making decisions for development programs," he said.

He admitted, however, that Indonesia still lacked quality social scientists willing to dedicate themselves to research. The country only has between 80 and 100 senior social researchers holding Ph.Ds.

"Not many of them have time to concentrate on social research due to other organizational commitments and administrative jobs," he said.

Bureaucracy

The association also suggested that steps be taken to improve the skills, ethics and morality of the country's civil servants.

"Professional bureaucrats should have a code of conduct," Azis said.

Minister of Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita admitted here Friday that Indonesia's bureaucrats lack professionalism, the right mentality and attitude to serve the public.

Civil servants have also been criticized for being inefficient, corrupt and partial to the dominant political group, Golkar.

Azis said government bureaucrats should share the blame for the recent riots because of their failure to deal with the public appropriately.

"Instead of acting as public servants, many bureaucrats are fond of using threats, which can offend the public," Azis said.

When people criticized them, the bureaucrats became easily upset and forgot that it was their lack of leadership skills that prompted the criticism in the first place, he said.