Sustainable development still elusive: Academic
Sustainable development still elusive: Academic
JAKARTA (JP): The concept of sustainable development in
Indonesia is still fiction rather than reality, prominent
academic Mubyarto said yesterday.
Speaking on the second day of the sixth Indonesia National
Science Congress, Mubyarto said sustainable development remained
necessary to improve the people's welfare.
"In my opinion, sustainable development in the Indonesian
economy is still weighted on hope and desire rather than on
reality and historical fact," said the professor of economics
from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University.
He said that the Indonesian economy had passed through several
phases, following various external changes in the world, and that
these had impeded sustainable and continued development.
"The Indonesian economy in the 50 years since independence has
not pursued an effective and sequential pattern of development,"
said Mubyarto, who is also an assistant to Minister of National
Development Planning/Chairman of the National Development
Planning Board Ginandjar Kartasasmita.
He defined sustainable development as development which
benefits all levels of society, including future generations.
Mubyarto argued that development which breeds economic
inequality and ignores disparities of wealth cannot be regarded
as sustainable development.
Such development leads to dissatisfaction and creates a social
time bomb for future generations, he said.
Development must not create new problems which can impede
development, he said, adding that "it must also avoid unnecessary
casualties or demand unexpectedly high costs."
Political observer Hasnan Habib agreed that social
dissatisfaction and unrest are new dangers confronting Indonesia.
The retired army general said that threats of unrest no
longer stem merely from territorial and military conflicts but
from problems such as famine, unemployment, environmental
degradation, abuses of power, social disintegration and ethnic
tensions.
These are all things which directly affect the individual's
sense of security, he added.
Mubyarto said that sustainable development is development
which is not enjoyed merely by a small portion of the people in
the economic elite.
Mubyarto then discussed Pancasila economics which, he said, is
based on people's cooperatives.
"Cooperatives are people's economic organizations which
succeed by working together, (which) do not kill each other
through competition," he said.
He questioned Indonesia's liberalization of its trade and
investment regimes.
"It is easy to find free competition in an unhealthy
environment or monopolistic competition," he said, adding that
the government is tackling those phenomena.
"Siding with the people's economy and cooperatives is a
constitutional mandate and an ideological mission to create a
just and equal economic society," he said.(mds)