Who is responsible?

In reference to Education and Culture Minister Wardiman Djojonegoro's statement on academic unemployment (Sept. 27), it is high time that The Jakarta Post published an article or a series of articles that deal with our major problems and go to the core of each issue.

Unemployed graduates from 1995 number about 400,000 -- 13.5 percent of the 3.23 million alumni in that year. Add to that total those former students without jobs since 1970 and you have about 10 million. Not to forget those from the high schools, so the total jumps to about 18 million.

When Sudomo was the minister of manpower 10 years ago, he mentioned an unemployment pool of 10 million Indonesians plus another 5 million "disguised" unemployed people.

At the end of last year we had 50,000 expatriates employed here. According to estimates this number will exceed 100,000 by the year 2000.

As I have frequently indicated, every expatriate costs the economy, on average, US$5,000 per month (Indians and Filipinos are on lower salaries than Caucasians) and 50 percent of this goes overseas. The total annual cost is US$ 3.5 billion a year and it will double by the year 2000.

That amount of money would easily employ 200,000 Indonesians, provided they have the qualifications for the jobs.

This situation begs me to ask the following questions:

1. Is there a serious problem with our education system? Is it true that we cannot produce the necessary quality of graduates and produce substandard material which foreign companies do not want to touch.

2. Has there ever been an effort from the ministry to get in touch with us from the industry and trade sectors, to assess our needs and establish realistic standards of competency?

3. Is this to be called a bencana alam (natural disaster)? We have tears in our eyes from the smoke. We call the slash-and- burning of some 600,000 hectares by companies a national disaster but it was not nature's fault. The culprits were the timber concession holders and those who won concessions to convert forests into plantations.

4. What is the definition of a natural disaster, in this case? Is it not plain arson?

The question in both cases is: who is accountable, who should bear the direct consequences of mismanagement?

We should start defining and solving the problems and the role of this newspaper could be essential in educating the public in analysis. Show them how to analyze, show them alternative solutions, costs, etc.?

Of course this cannot be done by your array of foreign writers. Sometimes I think I have a London daily in my hands as there are so few Indonesian writers contributing to your 16 pages.

Maybe Prof. Fuad Hassan or Prof. Slamet Iman Santoso, with their young staff seconding them, can produce a concise review?

Y. SANTO

Jakarta